Snowdrop question

'Godfrey Owen' is a very stable cultivar of Galanthus elwesii, consistently
with a 6 x 6 arrangement. A highly desirable, early-flowering but quite
short plant.

When we speak of "double snowdrops" we usually mean

those with multiplied inner segments.

This follows the normal horticultural convention of translating 'Flore
Pleno', literally 'full-flowered', as double. Such flowers are of course
seldom strictly doubled in their parts (as the arrangement in 'Godfrey Owen'
is), but as the usage has been current for centuries it is inappropriate to
quibble with it!

When two flowers appear on one scape in Galanthus it is described as
twin-headed, though some people assume that this is what is meant by
doubled.

In Galanthospeak it is normal to refer to unusual numbers of segments (of a
non-doubled flower) in a formulaic fashion, i.e. 4 x 4, 5 x 5, 6 x 6

The term poculiform has been used to describe those with inners and outers
of about the same size.

This is correct, but it has traditionally been in use for those where the
segments are effectively all 'outers', i.e. long and white, without green
markings, as opposed to cultivars such as G. plicatus 'Trym' where all six
segments are more or less equal, but are effectively 'inners'. Such
morphology has no formal name, but such flowers are often described as
'trymmed'. In recent years the concept of poculiform has had to be broadened
to include selections in which the segments are evidently 'outers' but have
green tips.

Also, to those to whom I have promised snowdrops: it isn't going to happen

anytime soon. We're frozen solid here. Look for them in bloom in the mail in
late winter.

I hope very much it doesn't happen until the bulbs are dormant, or nearly
so. The myth of transplanting snowdrops 'in the green' is one of the most
persistently damaging in horticulture: it is an absurd practice. A snowdrop
dug up in full growth is inevitably damaged and set back: its broken roots
do not regrow, and can seldom suport the leaf growth present. In consequence
the plant goes dormant early and the bulb is much smaller than it would have
been if it had been allowed to complete its growth cycle naturally. Snowdrop
bulbs are as tolerant as almost any others of being lifted and moved in
dormancy: they must only avoid being desiccated in fierce direct heat. A
bulb lifted in a full, mature state will never know it has been moved and
will flower as normal the following spring, which cannot often be said for a
plant moved in the green.

Here at Colesbourne Park (where we have quite a lot of snowdrops) we ONLY
move snowdrops in dormancy - I will not touch them while in active growth -
and as I personally handle tens of thousands of bulbs in this way each year
I can assure you that it works perfectly. I am glad to say that many other
galanthophiles in England are also following this practice these days.

I cannot imagine any competent bulb grower lifting daffodils 'in the green'
as a matter of course - or any other bulb for that matter - so why
snowdrops?

John Grimshaw

Visit John Grimshaw's Garden Diary
http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/

Dr. John M. Grimshaw
Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL53 9NP

Tel. 01242 870567