Over the centuries, writers have spilled a lot of ink over a little flower\u2014Galanthus nivalis or snowdrop.\u00a0 Tennyson and Wordsworth have sung its praises in lines of verse.\u00a0 Elizabethan herbalist John Gerard described the plant in his 1597 Herball<\/i>, when galanthus was already old news.\u00a0 It was most likely described by the great botanist and philosopher Theophrastus in the third century BCE.<\/p>\n
All of this verbiage has attached itself to a plant that only grows about 6 to 8 inches tall.\u00a0 The familiar green-marked white flowers bloom at the tops of the stems, drooping from thin pedicels or stalks.\u00a0 In single forms, snowdrops boast three long, roughly oval shaped petals and three shorter inner petals.\u00a0 Many varieties are scented\u2014a definite plus in spring when anything that smells good is a welcome addition to the muddy landscape.\u00a0 Happy snowdrops form clumps\u2014faster or slower depending on the species, variety and environment.\u00a0 One of my favorite green spaces, a vest-pocket public garden dating to the 1930\u2019s, is home to sheets of snowdrops every spring.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know for sure, but I imagine those sheets started with a few Depression-era clumps that took things into their own hands\u2014or roots\u2014over the decades.<\/p>\n
There are about 20 species of snowdrops and hundreds of hybrids and varieties, but the most common is Galanthus nivalis, native to Europe.\u00a0 Its generic name, \u201cgalanthus,\u201d is derived from Greek words meaning \u201cmilk\u201d and \u201cflower\u201d and the species name, \u201cnivalis\u201d means \u201csnow.\u201d\u00a0 Therefore, Galanthus nivalis is literally, \u201cthe snowy white flower.\u201d \u00a0Snowdrops are reasonably adaptable, but grow best in rich soil and partial shade.\u00a0 Planting snowdrops under deciduous trees is a good idea, giving them sun as they emerge in spring, followed by the shade they prefer later in the season.\u00a0 Anyone who has ever grown snowdrops knows that they pop up almost like magic in spring, flower triumphantly and then subside completely after the leaves have ripened.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this magical appearing\/disappearing quality, coupled with the ability to shoot up through cold earth, has made, the genus Galanthus the object of fierce devotion in many people.\u00a0 The Victorians fell in love with snowdrops and plant hunters of the era took pains to bring back new species from their travels.\u00a0 According to Freda Cox in her excellent book, A Gardener\u2019s Guide to Snowdrops, <\/i>the first double-flowered snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis \u2018Flore Pleno\u2019, was discovered in 1703. Doubles have been a source of fascination to collectors ever since.<\/p>\n
Collectors sometimes become \u201cgalanthophiles\u201d who are so wild about the plants that they will travel great distances to see important collections, pay vast sums for rare or unusual varieties or spend their lives growing and\/or breeding snowdrops.\u00a0 Heyrick Greatorex, an English gentleman of the first half of the twentieth century, was one such fanatic.\u00a0 A retired cavalry officer who saw service in World War I, he lived in Norfolk, preferring to sleep in a converted train car at the end of his garden, rather than a house.\u00a0 He spent his time on snowdrops, crossing the double-flowered \u2018Flore Pleno\u2019 snowdrop with another species, Galanthus plicatus, eventually producing double-flowered hybrids with large, regular blossoms.\u00a0 Dubbed the \u201cGreatorex Doubles,\u201d the hybrids were named after characters from Shakespeare.\u00a0 Sadly, Greatorex was reclusive and secretive, so modern galanthophiles have trouble identifying specific Greatorex varieties.\u00a0 Greatorex, who died in 1954, did not provide much written help.\u00a0 Some specialty nurseries sell a few of the Greatorex doubles that have been positively identified by specific varietal name.\u00a0 Other plants are only sold as \u201cmixed Greatorex doubles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if I could afford to be a galanthophile, I have a full plate of other plant obsessions already.\u00a0 Still, I can\u2019t resist variety.\u00a0 My garden is home to common snowdrops, which I am trying to increase over time.\u00a0 One of my favorites, \u2018S. Arnott\u2019, a hybrid from the mid-twentieth century, is an eye catcher that also works well in small arrangements.\u00a0 \u2018S. Arnott\u2019 looks like a common snowdrop on steroids, with fragrant flowers roughly twice the size of the nivalis species and V-shaped green markings on the petal tips.\u00a0 Another love, which I have indulged in sparingly, is \u2018Primrose Warburg\u2019, named after a well-known English plant authority. \u2018Primrose\u2019 features yellow ovaries at the base of each flower and yellow markings.\u00a0 My love persists despite the fact that it increases slowly in my garden.<\/p>\n
I am also fond of doubles, including the Greatorex hybrids, and over the years I have acquired small numbers of various varieties.<\/p>\n
Galanthus nivalis is widely available and dirt cheap, so there is no reason not to grow a respectable stand of it.\u00a0 \u2018Flore Pleno\u2019 is also relatively easy to obtain from garden centers and online vendors.\u00a0 Alternately, if you know someone with snowdrops, ask for a clump division in the spring, just as flowering finishes.\u00a0 As snowdrops have waxed in popularity over the last few years, I have seen \u2018S. Arnot\u2019 carried by some retailers.\u00a0 For greater variety, seek out specialists.\u00a0 One of the highpoints of my gardening year is the annual arrival of the little catalog from The Temple Nursery in Trumansburg, New York.\u00a0 The proprietor, Hitch Lyman, is a snowdrop expert and carries an excellent selection of unusual varieties.\u00a0 The snowdrops described in the catalog are not cheap, come with no guarantee of success and cannot be bought with a credit card, but Lyman\u2019s descriptions will make you want to buy up his entire inventory.<\/p>\n
If you are up to the challenge, contact The Temple Nursery, Box 591, Trumansburg, New York 14886.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the centuries, writers have spilled a lot of ink over a little flower\u2014Galanthus nivalis or snowdrop.\u00a0 Tennyson and Wordsworth have sung its praises in lines of verse.\u00a0 Elizabethan herbalist John Gerard described the plant in his 1597 Herball, when galanthus was already old news.\u00a0 It was most likely described by the great botanist and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,5],"tags":[1117,371,1118,1115,1120,1122,1119,1123,1116,370,1121],"class_list":["post-1275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-winter","tag-early-spring-flowers","tag-galanthus","tag-galanthus-flore-pleno","tag-glanthophiles","tag-greatorex","tag-hitch-lyman","tag-nivalis","tag-snowdrop-collections","tag-snowdrop-vendors","tag-snowdrops","tag-the-temple-nursery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}