missing snowdrop mystery solved
Diane Whitehead (Tue, 06 May 2008 17:54:18 PDT)

I have grown Galanthus woronowii for decades, a passalong plant here,
which has never set seed.

A couple of years ago small pots of woronowii in flower appeared on
the plant stands outside my grocery store. I stood outside in chilly
January, scrutinizing every pot, as they were either seedlings, or
wild-collected, and they all varied. I planted my choices near my
original colony so that bees could pollinate them all easily.

This year I noticed only one of the new plants. I read in Snowdrops
(Bishop, Davis and Grimshaw) that wild-collected bulbs are not often
good garden plants, and this unfortunately seems to be true for me.

However, today I was out doing my yearly routine of digging out
Spanish bluebells - great clumps of bulbs everywhere, even though I
dug them out last year, and the year before that, back into history.
Suddenly I realized that I was digging in the area that I had planted
the new snowdrops. That explains why they didn't do well in my
garden. They must have been dug out with the bluebells last year and
thrown on the compost.

I will have to look for and mark bluebell-free areas so I can have
safe places to grow new bulbs.

Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
mild rainy winters, mild dry summers