The Spice of Life

Galanthomania is a very serious condition ..... well, it can be dangerous to your bank balance and some might say sanity too! :-)    Snowdrops (Galanthus) have a cult following with truly crazy prices paid for new and/or unusual ones.   "But they are all the same really, just white and green," you might say.    Well, yes and no!    White flowers almost always with green markings, true, but the devil - and the madness - lies in the detail!   

In the thumbnail I have highlighted one, significant variation that occurs.   Yellow instead of green bits.   Easy enough to spot.   In truth, there are quite a number of different species and within each great variations can occur.  The common snowdrop, naturalised in vast numbers in the UK, is Galanthis nivalis.   Small.  White and green .... except occasionally there's no green.  Larger and widely grown are Galanthis elwesii and Galanthus plicatus.  Plicate referring to the folded back edges of the leaves.   Also sometimes grown and occasionally naturalised are Galanthus woronowii and Galanthus ikariae both of which have shiny green leaves rather than matt grey-green of most other species.

And then there's the green markings.   Infinitely variable and sometimes appearing on the larger outer petals as well as the smaller inner ones.  Markings that can look like a bird or a face as in Galanthus 'Lapwing' and Galanthus 'Grumpy'!    The names are as many and varied as the markings and the imagination of the grower!   Once when lecturing to a group of keen bulb growers I joked that the green markings moved about and was cordially hissed at!!

Whatever your views on the silly prices - £10 a bulb is cheap for a 'special' - they are very pretty and very welcome as they brighten the winter days.   In my shot, planted in a somewhat jumbled group following the hurried move from Norfolk the three forms in flower are at least clearly different.   Short and dumpy in the foreground, with rather plump flowers is G. Bertram Anderson, named after a renowned plantsman and gardener   Taller and wide open is G. 'Magnet' with flowers hanging on an unusually long pedicel.  These flowers swing in the breeze.   With yellow ovaries is G. 'Primrose Warburg' named after the wife of Prof Warburg of Clapham, Tutin and Warburg fame - if you remember that classic guide to Britain's flora.  I was lucky enough to meet Primrose a few times and to visit her Oxford garden at Snowdrop time over a quarter of a century ago and this perhaps is what's best about Galanthomania, it brings people together in a shared interest.   Friends for life once you've got the bug!

It's been a nice enough day here in paradise.   Meg and I enjoyed a long walk along the banks of the Dysynni late this afternoon.   Had the whole river to ourselves!