First Flower! A Snowdrop.

Here is a picture of the first flower ever to come up in the community garden I cultivate.

It is a galanthus elwesii, and bloomed Jaunary 5, through light snow cover, and is still standing today. The bulb was planted October 15, 2002.

Adam.

I bet you got your knees wet getting down to smell it!Congrats,I am waiting to see how the garden pans out,I did one for the friends of the library,It is very rewarding:)Root.

LOL, about 3 months from that here. There are hellebores blooming under the snow - I know this because I dug them out awhile ago just to check. Right now, there is a 4 foot drift across that part of the garden.

Enjoy your little bloom, and may you have many many more!

Makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it? :) Congratulations!!!! (p.s. did you check to make sure it is in the PDB? And add your photo?)

That is so cool! And don't you just get so excited watching something come up that you've planted. Very pretty!

Yeah, this does feel pretty good. Aside from some bulbs forced indoors, this is the first flower I've ever grown.

Adam.

Adam, you are really in trouble now. This is an addiction from which there is no retreat. You start out with a little plot and end up trying to cultivate 40 acres. But the rewards are many, and you meet the nicest people along the way. I have already warned my kids against trying to stick me into a nursing home that won't let me garden when and where and how I like.

Aimee, even if you do have to go into a rehab center, just bring along your computer and we'll virtual garden with you!

My volunteer group works with 3 area nursing homes/rehab centers. Not just planting things, but helping the patients to do it :) Great. We learn as much as they do! Some of them are real experts, they just need a little assistance in the physical work, the mental part is still full-time for them.

Lupine, I did that for credit when I was in school! It really taught me a lot of the old wives' tales and reminded me of others my ancestors had used but I never knew why. And it was extremely gratifying. One lady grew a salad and herb garden without ever touching the garden, just by sitting in her "chariot" and directing her laborers. She loved sharing her garden with her friends, and they all ate better for it.

how many snowdrop bulbs are planted in the garden?

This is Galanthus elwesii but what is interesting is it has green marks on the tips on the outer petals. What do the inner petals look like?

Mark ~~~

The answer is "I don't really know."

When I first put them in, I planted 50. Critters feasted on the bounty. I fabricated some wire cages and replanted another 50.

The early snowdrop I've shown you here came up just outside the boundary of the buried wire cages, thus is most likely from the first planting.

All snowdrops planted said Elwesii on the packaging and were from the same source.

You are right about the pale green highlight on the petal tips. It was slightly more vivid in life than in my scanned photo. I compared what was blooming to images on your site and noted the distinction.

The flower has now faded. I will post photos of the others as they come up, so we can see if they have similar green highlights.

If it turns out that these are anything interesting, of course I'll be happy to send some to you.

Adam.

thanks, I'll swap with you.

It would be a real pleasure.

We'll see what comes up.

If you think it's worthwhile, tell me when/how to dig them up and divide (and properly pack), and off they'll go.

Adam.

I would mark the ones that have green tips with a label to remember which are ones they are when the flowers go over.

I would then wait until the leaves start to turn yellow, dig them a send them in a small bag filled with damp moss.

I say them because snowdrops like company. A single snowdrop does better when it's very close to or touching another snowdrop bulb. if all yours turn up with green tips can I beg 2 or 3?

I dont understand how/why animals in the US eat them. They are very poisonous.

Mark, even though many bulbs are poisonous, rodents here (usually squirrels) dig them up continually. Not necessarily to eat; they want to get in on re-landscaping. They re-plant them everywhere!

Adam, a tip about the galanthus: keep them slightly damp. Letting them dry out will kill them.

I don't understand why your first one is already done blooming. Mine stay in bloom for weeks, as long as the weather stays cool.

This first, early flower was in full bloom on January 5.

I've never grown these (much less anything else) before, thus the depth of my knowledge is, shall we say, slight.

Adam.

Adam - thanks for the small ray of hope. I'm only a couple of hours north in Albany, and there are two feet of snow in my yard, but it's nice to know that NY does have a few flowers before next May (slight exaggeration, but I'm feeling glum about the weather right now). I'm fairly new at the garden, this being only my second year in the house, but I'm going to add these to the list of flowers to plant next Fall.

Sbarr ~~~

Galanthus are beautifully formed small flowers. I bought mine because of a pretty picture in a catalogue. Then I found Mark's web site when he posted the link here at DG:

http://www.marksgardenplants.com/galanthus1.htm

Nice, eh?

It's easy to understand his passion for these gorgeous little things.

Here's a link to a thread about galanthus:

http://davesgarden.com/t/371646/

Enjoy.

Adam.

This message was edited Sunday, Jan 19th 5:09 PM