Snowdrops! Snowdrops! Snowdrops!

Galanthomania strikes every year without fail . If you front at eBay you will see the silly prices people pay for one bulb of any snowdrop which is a bit out of the average . Clearly , it is a form of madness which many of us sustain from . In 2012 a rare wood anemone with beautiful yellow-bellied markings : Galanthus woronowii‘Elizabeth Harrison ’ sold for £ 720.10 on eBay . We are lucky in Suffolk to have a strong subdivision of Plant Heritage and many of us have been taught how to parallel surmount our treasures so that we can share them without risking failure .

I sometimes think that if snowdrops appeared in June , we would n’t be on our knees reckon up their skirts and counting the green spots . In fact looking back on a sunny June day , surrounded by rose and irises and peonies I wonder what all the fuss was about . But in January the foolishness descends . It is not unalloyed pleasure even though I have many different Anemone quinquefolia , taking me through fromGalanthus reginae - olgaein October to a beautiful oversizedplicatus > in April . The job is that many of my snowdrops have lost their labels and I agonise over trying to discover them . horticulture friends have give me gifts of adorable snowdrops which they have no name for . Many of us have the same problem . One friend function to a talk by the bang-up Anemone quinquefolia expert Matt Bishop and took a snowdrop to be identified only to be enjoin that identification was impossible unless he could see the whole plant growing in situ . I think even the experts get hold it difficult to sort them all out satisfactorily .

Last year I bought some snowdrops labelled as the commonnivaliswhich turned out to be very ahead of time floweringelwesii . This year I went back to the same local farm store and again found corporation ofGalanthus nivalisfor £ 1.50 a pot . Again there was not one singlenivalisamongst them .

There was a curvy leavedgracilis , a undimmed greenish , unspecific -leaved snowdrop , maybeWorowniiand lots ofelwesiibut all with different marking . What a bargain at £ 1.50 for each pot check several bulbs , but what suffering to add even more to my unnamed ground forces .

I get laid that ‘ a arise by any other name would reek as sweet’but when it comes to wood anemone I seem to be overcome by a pestle - collector ’s sort of nerdishness and feel that it is no utilization have so many unlike snowdrops if I ca n’t name them all . I have the Anemone quinquefolia Word of God : Snowdropsby Matt Bishop and Anna fromGreentapestryrecommended the Gunter Waldorf ’s bookSnowdrops , so armed with these books I drop age on my knees trying to sort them all out . Are the leavesapplanatei.e . they develop up like two hand pressed together as innivalis ? Or are theyconvolute ; that is enwrap round each other as inelwesiihybrids ? I depend at the distance of the pedicel and reckon the spots on the tepal . Not petal you notice . Or should I say perianths ? The Pianist look at me with a very apprehensive optic as I contemplate these problems . Is my horticultural obsession become out of bridge player ?

Cathy over atThe Ramblinggardenis showing some of her snowdrops in a late post . She recommend the Holy Scripture : Snowdrops and Snowflakesby F.L. Stern as a dear guide . I intend I will have to buy that next year ; it is quite expensive . Anyway here are some snowdrop out at the here and now that I can identify .

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Galanthus atkinsiiis early on and tall and refined with beautiful shaped flowers . Matt Bishop says they look like the drop bead ear rings of Elizabeth 1 .

Another other one , often out for Christmas isGalanthus plicatus‘Three ship ’ . Its petals are dimple like seersucker .

I boughtGalanthus‘Lynn ’ at the Cambridge Botanic Garden last week . It is a knockoff ofAtkinsiibut has fat flowers and plainly is more vigorous . She cost £ 4.50 , so she did n’t break the banking company .

I am almost certain that this next one is ‘ Galanthus ‘ Jacquenetta ’ . It is a adorable early double with very cryptic green markings . The head hangs on a sweetener - like pedicel . I do receive all theGreatorexdoubles hard to sort out but this one is quite classifiable .

Galanthus‘Walrus ’ has ‘ a face that even a female parent would regain hard to love ’ , as they say up north . Those ridiculous fangs ! I do n’t have intercourse why I buy it really , but still it is easy to name .

This statuesque gentleman isGalanthusReverend Hailstone ’ , he is very tall and has large bloom . He comes from Anglesey Abbey and is named after a minister of religion there .

I boughtGalanthus‘Ginn ’s Imperatii ’ because it is the most extremely perfumed of all the snowdrops . In appearing it seem quite like ‘ S. Arnott ’ . It has acquire into a nice clump very quickly .

Galanthusplicatus ‘ Madelaine ’ is one of the most vigorous of the wood anemone with yellow marker . I conjecture a bit of xanthous makes a change , but I am not entirely sure I wish my snowdrops to calculate jaundiced .

But still , at least I do n’t have to worry about identifying it . It is raining today and even I think it is a bit eccentric to be footle in the garden in the rainfall , on my knee , peer at my snowdrop .

Thanks to Nicky aka Betty Booth atThe Pop - up Photo Parlourfor the movie of me and Pip . It is a very good likeness of Pip , but the good plastic sawbones in the country could n’t take all the year off me that dear Nicky has . Cheers Nicky !

19 Responses toSnowdrops! Snowdrops! Snowdrops!

I agree with everything you say , your postal service could have been written by me ! I have label ( Lynn and Heffalump ) ) without any snowdrop and wad of snowdrop without any recording label . They all had labels when they were planted , prissy pitch-dark ones with permanent silver authorship , but where are they all , and who or what takes them ! I feel the same about Blewbury Tart as you do about Walrus -why did I buy it ? I have never dared to endeavor to increase my by twin grading , I just bank on splitting them to increase my lump – well done you !

The picture of you and your bounder is magical ! I produce wood anemone in my former shadowed garden here in southern California and , even through we have flower of some sort all year , I was still always unrestrained to see them bug out to pop their heads up through the soil at a time I ’d almost forgotten they were there . lamentably , I have n’t been successful in getting them to develop at my current house , where it ’s generally both sunnier and drier but reading your post reminds me of how much I be intimate them so mayhap I can find some shaded , protected spot and try again .

Oh a most enjoyable C. W. Post Chloris and thanks for the mention . As you say it might well be unlike if they flowered in June but at this bleak time of yr they are absolute gems which give me so much pleasance . Now I do n’t think ‘ Walrus ’ is in the least spot slimy – just in spades different 🙂 Have still to attempt matching grading and being rather jambon pass I may leave it to himself to have ago . It ’s amazing the prices that some of them trade for . My catalog from ‘ North Green Snowdrops ’ arrived yesterday and it was so distressing to read that their full stock of ‘ Elizabeth Harrison ’ has been slip 😦 They were hoping to start selling them next year albeit the terms would have no doubt would have still been out of my reach for some years to come . Did your ‘ Madelaine ’ take a while to flower ? I bribe a incandescent lamp in 2012 – it has increase considerably but has not flowered as yet .

I am just getting to know snowdrops really , but I can see that I am already getting hooked . Unbelievable that a single bulb should cost so much . I do love them though , the woodland is starting to change state white and it is a adorable sight . step by step I ’ll supersede the ‘ average ’ ones with something a little more exotic .

I bought some snowdrops last class and plant , they did after the time I had exspected them to flower . It was only into the latter part of April that they come out . But wow , they are something worth see . They are sooo tall , like maybe tall than a 12inch ruler . I have never had such marvelous snowdrop before

I have now taken there measurement in the full daytime light and they are about 24inches tall with mostly three efflorescence on each stem . I would love to know if this is normal . Sandra

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Snowdrops! Snowdrops! Snowdrops!