Galanthus in January

[mark smyth]

Thanks Martin.

Lost label time. Guys and girls whats the first double to flower? Is it Farringdon Double with very neat inners and flowering for a couple of weeks.

[Paddy Tobin]

It certainly is the first with me, Mark.

[mark smyth]

I'll write a label with a ?

[Brian Ellis]

I think it's generally accepted to be the first of the older double varieties to flower Mark, of course nowadays something will probably preceed it

[Paddy Tobin]

Mild weather and the snowdrops are opening quickly:
G. 'Atkinsii'
G. 'Castlegar'
G. 'David Baker'
G. 'Desdemona'
G. 'Ding Dong'
G. 'Florence Baker;
G. 'Lavinia'
G. 'Mrs Macnamara'
G. 'Three Ships'

[Paddy Tobin]

Fingers crossed these will upload

[Anthonyh]

Very nice pictures Paddy.

 Mine are running rather late this year... worryingly so in some cases... and my first Faringdon Double is still a week away from opening. 

[RichardW]

Nice to have so many out early, I'm praying for cold weather because things are shooting up fast and it's not good for our openings if they're over too quickly, ridiculously mild at the moment.

Had hoped to be in Ireland at the end of jan for a few days but had to cancel the trip before Xmas 
Maybe next year.

[snowdropcollector]

Amazing Paddy, you have so many flowering already. Most are just showing overhere.
Only Gabriel, Farringdon Double and Pl Colossus are flowering overhere.

Some others are waiting to get open, think they hate all the rain ( like me  )

[Paddy Tobin]

Our weather has been particularly mild over the Christmas period and we have had an unusually early flowering of snowdrops. G. Faringdon Double' is over at this stage. There are many others on the cusp of flowering and if this weather continues it may be a short season. We will enjoy it while we have it.

[Maggi Young]

Our weather has been particularly mild over the Christmas period and we have had an unusually early flowering of snowdrops. G. Faringdon Double' is over at this stage. There are many others on the cusp of flowering and if this weather continues it may be a short season. We will enjoy it while we have it.

Good grief - one over already? Seems incredible from our perspective.
Still, you are quite right - better to enjoy them  for a short time in an odd period than not at all.

[snowdropcollector]

Same mild weather over here Paddy, but we have had lots of rain for the last 4 weeks.
And there is a big difference in the development of the snowdrops. The one's I did get "in the green" are much later
than the one's I did get as dormant bulbs in the summer.

Some losses are noticed by me too. Most of those were damaged by the very cold weather we did have over here
last Febr. Hope we do not get the same late cold weather as last year, snowdrops were far developt ( due to the warm
weather we had in Dec. and Jan.) and the frost ( - 21) in Febr. killed several cultivars. Some were damaged by that cold weather but they seem not to have recovered totally and have now been killed by the wet weather  . 
Think there will be some more losses before the season is over...... 

[Sean Fox]

Very nice indeed Paddy and far ahead of mine although things are starting to move with this mild weather, but they are well behind on last years showings.

As for losses, after the really wet spring/summer/autumn and now winter last/this year I'm surprised at how resilient snowdrops are as they can't have had a dry spell at all during their dormant season for me. I have three confirmed losses so far (no show's in pots which I have carefully tipped out to check  ) and so far the one's in the garden seem to be doing OK, although like I've stated well behind last years showings. And considering all the wet weather I'm also surprised that stag hasn't reared it's ugly head round here (although I've probably tempted fate)! All in all I'm happy with the way things are growing, I was worried by the number of no shows a few weeks ago so rather relieved!!

[RichardW]

few more in the greenhouse, all new arrivals last year.

gracils Vic Horton
Percy Picton
nivalis Blythe Spirit

[snowdropcollector]

Nice pictures Richard, great that your new arrivals are doing well. Niv. Blithe Spirit is here almost flowering, planted outside
in the garden. It is a great, strong cultivar. Specially looking great when they are flowering in a clump, nice markings  .