My first snowdrops are blooming! Normally they only start blooming around the middle of February in my garden, I mean the Galanthus nivalis (Elwesii blooms around 2 weeks earlier).
The picture shows a snowdrop I bought as the common Galanthus nivalis, but the green patterns on the in-and outside of the inner petals don't correspond with the usual nivalis.
Someone knows if this is a natural variation or another variety ?
Mine are pushing up in a hurry too bonitin, some are nearly open. Everything is a month early this year. Would you believe I have a poppy open?
Galanthophile might be able to tell you which one it is, there are several named varieties as well as species.
Here's a lot of pics to look at, you have to click on the links though.
http://www.snowdropinfo.com/gallery2007.htm
http://www.judyssnowdrops.co.uk/Plant_Profiles/plant_profiles.htm
http://www.galanthus.be/
What a lot of fun this will be to look at all those!
Waw! I never could imagine that there are soooooooo many !
Thanks Wallaby, I will have to take my time to go through all these without getting dizzy!
There are some real beauties among them, but I'm not so found of the double flowered ones.
The only types I have are : G.nivalis, elwesii and ikarea.
I love them all, but my preference goes to the simple and pure beauty of the 'common' Galanthus nivalis.
How is it possible you have a poppy blooming ?! Is it the wild papaver rhoas ? That beats all the other stories !
We are having mild weather, up to 13C teh other day but often to 10 or 11C, then it goes down for a while but still milder than normal. The autumn was mild too, apart from some frosts November to December.
The poppy is a Papver orientalis, the one in flower is one of my own I grew from Patty's Plum, crossed with Royal Wedding. I had another that threw up a flower late in autumn, with a tall stem. The one flowering now was in a hurry, it only has a short stem about 3" tall, with another flower at the side of it that already has popped it's pod but is only just showing from the leaves and hasn't got colour yet, it's green.
Now I think I can see another pod behind the leaf to the right, perhpas I have a very good hybrid? I think this one had earlier flowers last year, I will have to watch it!
Everything is earlier, I have a Camellia which 'always' when normal weather starts opening it's first flower on February 18th, this year it was opening on January 18th, last year it was March, around the 18th, as it was a long, cold winter.
The 'normal' blooming time of papaper Orientalis is around June.
So this is really amazing! It makes it the more interesting that you have had a hand in its existence. You'll have to give it a name!
I like the delicacy of its colour! Is that its usual colour or perhaps is it due to the low light levels at this time of the year ?
I have a Helleborus orientalis that just started blooming, a month earlier than usual. But its flowers are much paler than last year when it bloomed around beginning of March.
Yes my Patty's Plum flowers late May to June and sometimes a few later. I have another one which is really amazing, I gave it a name (after myself!). Some of them haven't made huge amounts of flowers yet, but they are on a slope which can be quite dry once flowering begins. That is something like the colour, some of them have a pinkish-lilac tinge, I got seed from both parents and only had a few of each survive after the damp off (too crowded!). None of them are dark, some nearer white. You can see some on the Poppies forum.
I have some Helleborus in flower too, Queen of the Night has just opened, seedlings I grew 2 years ago are flowering, they started to germinated at the end of December so are only just 2 years old,which is amazing. I have a white with red spots Ashwood Hybrid and an orientalis 'Red Shades' which is a soft pink flushed dusky purple on the backs. The three have crossed and produced some really nice robust plants. You can see them on a thread on the Perennials forum about Hellebores.
Thanks wallaby for the links to the different Snow Drops. Enjoyed seeing so many varieties, altho I have to say that without seeing them side by side, I could not see the difference in some. I just have the common ones that everyone has, several clumps .
Hi, there are hundreds of varieties of snowdrops and many named forms showing just slight variations in the green markings, petal size, shape etc. There are 500 cultivated forms! The one you have pictured looks like elwesii to me. It should have broad glaucous leaves, one of which is usually clasped around the other when mature. It is very variable indeed and has many different green markings. Yours is very nice indeed. Most of my snowdrops are now starting to show through which of course is very exciting. I'll try and post as many pictures as I can.
Wow! Judy's site is wonderful. I never knew there were so many.
Would love to have 'Shuttlecock' as seem in the calender (March.)
Great thread and thanks for your links, W.
R.
I looked through all the pictures last night! Some really interesting ones, I have quite a few but they were already here, so I don't know who put them in, they could have been here for donkeys years.
I was amazed there could be so many variations, there was one that made me gasp if I could remember which it was!
I thought yours looked closest to the elwesii too bonitin, but when I looked at them all I kept thinking I found one that was 'close' but still too different in all of the species! But elwesii had many with similar form.
I found the one I like, it's plicatus Edinburgh Ketton on judy's site. The depth of green and the crispness of the edge of it, with the upside down 'castle top' shape, I really would like to find that one! It would probably cost an arm and a leg if I did too.
http://www.judyssnowdrops.co.uk/Plant_Profiles/plicatus/edinburgh_ketton/edinburgh_ketton.htm
Thanks Galanthophile and Wallaby, I think you're both right. It must belong to the Elwesii-group, although I bought them as being the nivalis.
We must all have experienced that bulb salesmen are not always conscientious in naming their bulbs correctly.
I managed to get through all of the pictures of the interesting links, but it's difficult like Rutholive mentioned not to be able to view them side by side.
It is so difficult to resist the temptation of becoming greedy for some of the beauties for the simple reason of lack of space.
I didn't find one among them that is a perfect match for my Elwesii snowdrop. So it could be another variety to add to the already vast list.
The plicatus Edinburgh Keaton is indeed enchanting Wallaby.
