John brings up an interesting quandry and, since I am new to the snowdrop world and don't really consider myself a "true" galanthaphile (or does spending $200 on snowdrops in one go put one in that category?), I do have a question that perhaps someone (John Grimshaw?) can answer. In large garden drifts of a particular cultivar that have been enlarged by vegetative propagation--division or scaling--how does one normally keep the group from getting "polluted" with self-sown seedlings? Is it necessary to try to find all the seed before it pops and, if more seedlings are wanted (for different looking plants), sow them in pots or away from the drift? Or do people usually just go through the drifts looking for the oddity and rogue it out? It would seem that that would allow for some genetic drift. Surely even 100 yards/meters is not much for a bee, so I would think that they would not come anywhere close to true. Ernie O'Byrne Northwest Garden Nursery 86813 Central Road Eugene ORegon 97402-9284 USA USDA Zone 8a officially, but really Z. 7b Phone: 541 935-3915 FAX: 541 935-0863 -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of John Lonsdale Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 3:23 PM To: 'Pacific Bulb Society' Subject: RE: [pbs] Snowdrops With reference to the recent snowdrop thread, but absolutely no criticism of any of the contributors, I love the use of phrases such as "can be" or "in some cases" it "can be", "are usually" and "most likely to be the latter as it is more readily available". When dealing with the classification and identification of over 700 named species and varieties of snowdrops it is vital to use terms and criteria such as the above in order to be truly definitive. I defy anyone, especially Galanthus experts, to accurately identify more than 5-10% of any of the snowdrops put in front of them. <snip>