#SixOnSaturday: Galanthomania in the Garden

 I love snowdrops, and in addition to liking to see them in groups round the garden in spring, I am  beginning to appreciate the differences between the different cultivars. The Garden magazine featured people's favourite varieties in their February 2022 edition, I was pleased to see a few I have in my garden listed there. Also The Tea Break Gardener produced a wonderful guide to growing snowdrops which can be found by clicking here. The three commonest snowdrops are Galanthus nivalis an 'ordinary' snowdrop most commonly seen in gardens, the double snowdrop is Galanthus flore pleno and a tall one Galanthus elwesii. There's so much to learn about different varieties of snowdrops, and I find it hard to identify different ones when planted, I think I need to draw a plan of where they are. I have devoted all of my six to snowdrops this week, they aren't all at their optimal size yet, some are still emerging.

I'm going to start with G. Trumps because it's easy to recognise and I bought it in spring 2021 when I didn't go and visit gardens to look at snowdrops, but bought it online and was delighted when it arrived wonderfully packaged. It was mentioned by Alan Street of Avon Bulbs who describes it as 'A first class showy snowdrop that makes substantial clumps of scented flowers. A large, dark green inverted heart-shaped inner mark is matched by a long streak of green on the outer segments. It is a flower that never ceases to amaze.' Here it is below, not clumping yet, but 3 flowers are a good start

And here are the rest:

I think this one above is G. plicatus 'Augustus' recognisable by its thick wide leaves 

I have received an identification of this snowdrop above, my friend Helen thinks it is: 'Galanthus nivalis ‘Bitton’.  It is described as ‘Sturdy, small, with strong scapes, curved spathe and YELLOW-GREEN ovary’ ……(flower) ‘Inner segments broad OLIVE-GREEN inverted ‘U’.  

  …….ProbablyCanon Ellacombe’s garden, Bitton Rectory, Bristol. 

This one above is one of the double flore pleno varieties, not opened up very much yet

I think the one above is G.nivalis one of the large clumps in many places in the garden which probably needs splitting after flowering, and below also a bit crowded is G.S.Arnott a tall snowdrop which is wonderful

So there are my six snowdrops, and I wish I was better with identification, I know I have G.Hippolyta  and G. Viridapice, the latter isn't flowering yet. What I am keen to do is visit some of the local fabulous snowdrop gardens such as Cerney Gardens, Cotswold Farm Gardens and Colesbourne Park Gardens.

And now it's time to go and see what the author of this #sixonsaturday scheme and other gardeners on his sit have chosen in his blog.