I bought these snowdrops (in the green) at Cambo estate in north-east Fife a few years ago and they had been multiplying but this year only these two have appeared. I’m surprised that they didn’t succumb to some kind of rot mind you as the ground has been sodden more often than not in the past year.
As you can see these snowdrops are quite different from the ones you normally see. They are a lot bigger too, these are about five inches tall. You’re probably thinking – look at the state of her garden, it’s full of last year’s leaves . I’ve cleared up about half of them but I like to leave some for the blackbirds to have some fun with. They love to throw the dead leaves about in the hope of finding something yummy underneath, hopefully slugs or slaters, both of which are too plentiful for my liking. I’m not sure if that’s the best strategy as it might mean that beasties have a better chance of breeding like crazy and hiding from birds, but anyway, it’s my excuse – and I’m sticking to it!
I’ve just realised that not everyone will know what I mean by slaters – it’s Scots for woodlice. No, I’m not going to take a photo of them – they make me shudder!
Lovely, Katrina! Garden slugs and bugs makes me think of a scene in Anne of Green Gables when she and Matthew are in the wagon going home from him picking her up at the train station and she asks him if there’s anything he really loves and he says something about slugs. Oh how I love Matthew!
Peggy Ann,
You have some memory! I had forgotten about that scene. That’s boys for you though – you’ve got to love them.
Look how pretty those are! We are a long way yet from spring flowers popping up here. We still have a nice thick layer of snow on the ground.
Stefanie,
We had hail last week and we still have hard frost in the morning. I remember that you are colder than us then you heat up very quickly and get very hot. We had 5 warm days in the whole of last year, and the hottest was just 70 F. The daffodils won’t be flowering for a couple of weeks yet.
The leaves are a good mulch, and rot down into compost – good for the garden and great for the blackbirds. I can picture them right now in my mind’s eye! Flick, shake, flick!
I saw some Leucojum Vernum blooming in Dawyck Gardens recently, and had to ask one of the gardeners its name as I couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember either so actually got onto his walkie-talkie to ask about it for me. The only difference was that the tips of the petals had straight green bars rather than chevrons. I wish I had had my camera, but I had forgotten to recharge the battery. Must try and go back very soon.
Evee,
The blackbirds are so messy but I love watching them, just as well I’m not a tidy gardener!
It’s amazing how many different snowdrops there are. I must get to Dawyck sometime, they sound very helpful there.
This plant isn’t Galanthos, it’s name is Leucojum vernum. And the snowdrops’ botanical name is Galanthus nivalis (or G. plicatus).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galanthus_nivalis
or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucojum_vernum
Salagvárdi József,
Thanks for the information, obviously my plants must have been wrongly labelled, sadly that happens a lot. Thanks for taking the time to comment.