Galanthomania- Snowdrop madness.

February is the calendar month when those of us in the clutches of White Fever fall back all control to the bewilderment of garden bloggers who are immune or who have not yet succumbed . I say ‘ not yet ’ and I always read with entertainment when someone writes that they have for the first time , acquired a different snowdrop , perhaps a Greatorex double or the true ‘ S.Arnott ’ . If that is you , then be warn my booster , you are on the primrose path ( or should that be the ‘ snowdrop ’ route ) to financial ruin and an annual month or two of insanity . Fortunately , the disease go into remittal sometime in March . But in the lag your credit card can take some punishment . I attempt to resist the ones that are silly prices , and some of them are very silly indeed . In 2015 someone payed £ 1,390 on eBay forGalanthus plicatus‘Golden Fleece ’ . You do n’t need to pay this much for a yellow snowdrop . adorable ‘ Wendy ’s Gold ’ is quite sensible .

Galanthus‘Wendy ’s Gold ’

‘ Madelaine ’ has sensationalistic ovary and clumps up speedily and do quite an wallop .

Galanthus‘Wendy’s Gold’

Galanthus‘Madelaine ’

Sometimes I pay , ( shush , I ’ll whisper it ) -£20 and more , for something really different . I state myself that I will twinscale it or mature it on and make mess of money sell it on eBay where hoi polloi pay crazy nitty-gritty of money for wood anemone . But I never do , I need nice big glob myself and now and then it ’s dainty to have enough to share with friends . Anyway what variety of philistine see at their snowdrops and sees money ?

Digggory was one of my expensive single but who can resist those lovely puffy , seersucker flowers ?

Galanthus‘Wendy’s Gold’

Galanthus‘Diggory ’

And even crabby old Reginald Farrer calledGalanthus poculiformishis ‘ jewel of jewels’because of its serene stunner . It has no green print at all and the inner segments are the same size as the stunned ones .

Galanthus poculiformis

Galanthus‘Wendy’s Gold’

Or maybe the duple one are more to your taste , ‘ Lady Beatrix Stanley ’ has a froufrou dame like a danseuse and the Greatorex double which were created by crossingGalanthus nivaliswithGalanthus plicatusare all gorgeous too . Some of them have very pronounced green stripes like ‘ Dionysius ’ which is one of the first Greatorex double up to bloom in my garden .

Galanthus ‘ Dionysius ’

I have all the Shakespearian heroine but ‘ titanium oxide ’ is my favourite and so she should be as she is the king of the Fairies . Here she is still in bud .

Galanthus‘Madelaine’

Galanthus‘Titania ’

Galanthus nivalisis the wood anemone which carpets country churchyards and is so omnipresent that many people believe it to be native although it is not . It does n’t unremarkably show much magnetic variation although I found this one with pale green shading on the outer petal recently .

wood anemone with special K on the taboo petals are very desirable . I have ‘ Trumps ’ who is so much prettier and nicer than his near namesake and here is ‘ Trymlet ’ struggle through the heather , I must move her to a more prominent position .

Galanthus‘Diggory’

Galanthus‘Trymlet ’

And I am also very tender of dainty ‘ Corrin ’ .

Galanthus‘Corrin ’

Galanthus poculiformis

Maybe if I set my Anemone quinquefolia with the pale green shadings on the flower petal nearby I will get some unusual babe . And of course there is always the excitement when looking at snowdropsen massethat if you are sharp - eyeball you might find something very dissimilar . And yesterday in the God’s acre that is just what happened- I found this strange flower .

And yes , I hear you gasp in repulsion , but I did dug it up . It was in risk of being squashed by regardless worker who are dig trenches as some local nosy-parker has decided our 15th century church involve a lavatory . Actually the quondam part is thirteenth century . I do n’t know if modern bladders are weaker than they have been for the last 800 years or so , but they are making a terrible and in most the great unwashed ’s impression , unneeded muddle . Anyway since the leading was stolen from the Christian church cap we have CCT tv camera so I will probably be arrested . I desire some of my blogging friends will visit me in jail . Personally , I think they should nab the oceanic abyss diggers .

Galanthus elwesiiis usually in bloom much earlier and has larger flower . It has extensive glaucous leaves and the flowers show lots of variations .

Galanthus ‘Dionysius’

Galanthus elwesii”Fred ’s monster ’

Galanthus plicatushas distinctive leave with a plait in them . One of the most popular is the dumpy small ‘ Augustus ’ named after A. E. Bowles .

Galanthus‘Augustus ’

Galanthus‘Titania’

I have a endearing late floweringGalanthus plicatuswith large fold up leaf and bloom which originate in cornucopia in my old garden . It bloom in March and finish off the the snowdrop time of year for me .

Galanthus plicatus

And then of course there are the fragrant single which smell out clearly of honey . I publish about the adorable fragrance of ‘ S.Arnott ’ and ‘ Brenda Troyle ’ in a premature Emily Price Post but did I bring up that ‘ Ginn ’s Imperatii ’ tone of almonds ? And ‘ Brabaham ’s Scented ’ is the most sweet scented of all . I keep a pot in the nursery . Behind itMuscari macrocarpum‘Golden Fragrance ’ is also pump out a celestial perfume .

Galanthus ‘ Brabaham ’s Scented ’

And then there are the ones with faces . ‘ Grumpy ’ look just like a fussy face .

Galanthus‘Grumpy ’

Galanthus‘Trymlet’

And ‘ Two optic ’ look a small down in the mouth too . in reality , I only just noticed , it is very alike . But ‘ Grumpy ’ is the one everyone wants , we all like to anthropomorphize our plants . ( Sorry about the unsportsmanlike fingers , I always terminate up discarding my gloves . )

Galanthus‘Two oculus ’

So there we are , for a few weeks I populate and breathe snowdrops . I even wear Anemone quinquefolia on my bosom .

Galanthus‘Corrin’

I expend hour with my olfactory organ in the snowdrop bible , the Matt Bishop monograph on Galanthus which I bribe years ago for £ 36 and recall I was very extravagant . You now determine it on Amazon for between £ 560 and £ 880 . Yes , snowdrop enthusiast really are mad .

But then in the middle of wintertime what else is there for a plant fanatical to obsess about ? Sitting by the fireside dreaming of roses is all very well but at some stop you want to get out of doors and discover something to enjoy . And snowdrops are delicately beautiful and if you recollect they all look the same , then look again . Here are a few more of my ducky .

Perhaps you exist in a country that does n’t have week of cold grayness sky or perhaps like Reginald Farrer , you find looking at snowdrops give you chilblains and you do n’t finger the need to kneel on cold crocked ground to peer up the chaste annulus of these C white beauty . But you are missing one of the few horticultural pleasure of winter , specially if you may deal it with like - minded Friend . There is something special about a rare February 24-hour interval of sunshine when the bird have set off to practise their trill and the bud are plumping up on the tree and you and your fellow snowdrop nerds hamper together , exclaiming over yet more exquisite dish . I love there are people out there who do not ‘ get ’ the fascination with snowdrops . They say beauty is in the eyes of the observer but I am with the inimitable Miss Piggy when she say to Kermit:‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a dazed or misinformed beholder a black middle ’ . I am not suggesting that any of my endearing blogging booster are stupefied but if you ca n’t apprize their peach , put your coating on and go alfresco to have a proper look .

54 Responses toGalanthomania- Snowdrop madness.

Chloris , I subsist in North Carolina , and I am a galanthophile . There , I ’ve confessed ! I found a G. nivalis with pallid green flight strip on the verboten flower petal at my back door bed several days ago . If it had the stripes last year , I do n’t remember noticing them . I am joyful ! I dream of confabulate England in snowdrop season . give thanks you for post this wonderful dainty . It ’s as sweet as the Pianist ’s cakes .

You make it easier for me to understand the tulip mania in early seventeenth century Holland 😉 Actually , there ’s little interrogative in my judgment that , were I to dwell in a clime such as yours , I ’d be likely to yield to wood anemone as well – I certainly have more Leucadendrons and Grevilleas than anyone needs .

Sweet ! You for sure have an telling collection of Snowdrops . I have a few , but you ’ve convinced me I need to add more ! They are particular !