Snowdrops

I split all mine about 3 years ago, good to go for a couple more years now.

 

Bought my first "unusual ones" today, to make a start to a modest collection ... found that Eurobulbs sell a handful of slightly unusual ones at £2-£4 each - haven't seen those varieties for less than £4 elsewhere ... and they are sold in 5's or 10's which will give me a reasonably amount of material to try twin-scaling on

I'll let you know how I got on in 3 or 4 years time

 

We had a few last year (not knowing what was in the ground when we moved in)
but were given a couple of large clumps from a farmer friend last Feb and split them up. They are all up now and some in flower but I noticed yesterday that a few were double. Unfortunately as they point downwards they don't show up.

 

Eurobulbs has a few of the more well known "unusual" varieties at what seems to be very reasonable prices. They only sell them in 5's and 10's though (the enthusiasts seem to buy one plant and nurture it into a clump, or slice it up into thin segments to propagate them ["twin-scaling"]).

Viridapice, Hyppolyta, S. Arnott, Atkinsii @ £2
Plicatus Warham, Magnet, Green Bush @ £4

I failed to resist !! Free bulbs with every £50 spent ... I have an embarrassing number of free bulbs coming ... OMG!

 

Thank you Palastris for Carolyns shade garden, so pretty. If I put all them in, I'd truly forget their names, and tags forget it, with all the raking the tags would just get lost. But I like how she managed to get a rose shrub in her garden, I only have one that has hung on for years in semi shade.

 

They've arrived

 

Looking good!

 

I was thinking I would pot up the more "precious" ones.

Anyone got suggestions for a size of pot? and how many per pot?

I do have plenty of Rose pots if they need deep pots - but they are quite large, so I could perhaps get more than one bulb in each.

 

I have planted mine, outside, on that very principle. Jabbed the bulb-planter about randomly and then put 3 bulbs in each hole. The effect seems quite pleasing (of the ones I planted that way last Spring which are just now coming into flower)

In the absence of any advice (couldn't find anything on a snowdrop forum either, except that deep pots are favoured), I've bunged then 5 around a 2L pot with some JI #3 and then I'll rethink once they are dormant, around June.

I'm increasingly unconvinced about this "transplant in the green" business.

For sure snowdrops drying out is a bad thing, and transplanting them in the green probably helps in that regard. But the broken roots won't regrow at this time, and roots are critical to building up the bulb for next year, so I think a lot of the time the bulb is going to "recover" in its second year. Whereas when dormant there will be no such disturbance. I've been marking clumps that need dividing with a stick, and taken a photograph, so that I divide them up later in the year ... hopefully they'll carry on bulking up more quickly as a result.

 

See my entry about 'naked' bulbs. RHS advice now is that they are best moved when dormant, but not allowing the bulbs to dry out.
They certainly seem to prefer being planted in groups as opposed to singly, which is OK if you HAVE 3 or 5 but at say £30 a bulb who can afford that many?
Since the majority of my G nivalis are in one spot I tend to mark the places where I want to put them rather than the places where the clumps of bulbs are.

There are spaces in the wood which need plants moving into them.

 

I think I remember reading an article to that effect in The Garden recently. Very few suppliers shipping "damp, when dormant" that I have seen ...

If shipped in the green perhaps it encourages people to plant them immediately, like any other bare root plant, so better for inexperienced gardeners perhaps?

Good idea. Do you have a system (a marker perhaps?) for which clumps to lift and divide [into the gaps]? or maybe you are buying-in some to fill the gaps each year? (Looks like you have some decent clumps though, it looks very established and mature. Envious )

How do you keep the weeds down in that area, in the Summer? Or perhaps something else comes up there in the Summer?

 

The wood has very few weeds in it as once the Damsons get their leaves it is very dark in there. Maybe a few nettles which are easy to pull out, but the biggest problems are the 1,000's of Ivy seedlings.
All the clumps are of similar size so I tend to move the ones which the moles disturb.

 

never got bulbs like that in a plastic bag with green on them. Humm.
guess cause I prefer getting them in the fall season, so I get bags of bulbs, no green.