Snowdrops in the Washington Post
Rodger Whitlock (Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:40:40 PST)

On 21 Feb 2013, at 15:28, Mark BROWN wrote:

I found the article another product of today's faux journalism. It was
superficial in the extreme, exuding an odor of "oooh, lookie at the odd things
people like." And no effort was made, afaict, to look into snowdrop culture in
the US, which is alive and well in the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades.
And, very likely, other places.

The reporter appeared to think that a taste for snowdrops is something new in
the New World. Not so. I have Galanthus nivalis that originally came around the
Horn in 1850 when Vancouver Island was first being settled by Europeans, and
I'm confident that there are many plantings traceable much further back than
that along the eastern seaboard.

I'm not a member of the cult of the snowdrop; I like them, but can't get myself
worked up about the very minor variations between many cultivars. Nonetheless,
it's a subject that deserves better than what the Washington Post has printed.

[The G. nivalis I have are the same as all the rest; their historicity is not
horticulturally significant.]
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate