librarian2003 (librarian2003) wrote in weagardening, @ 2012-02-07 18:06:00 |
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Week 3
What a week - winter has finally arrived with shivers and snow. But, we brightened ourselves up with some lovely plants of the week.
On Friday, Jean drew the short straw for both bulb and shrub for February, and she told us about Muscari and Skimmia. On Tuesday, Robert told us about snowdrops, and Sheila introduced us to Winter Aconites, Eranthis.
Snowdrops (Galanthus) are already at Photobucket from last week, but the others are in the usual place:
Eranthis, Muscari and Skimmia
Also on that Photobucket link, you will find images of Phalaenopsis Blue Mystique, syn Royal Family. This is a blue Phalaenopsis, created by a patented process that does not involve painting, spraying or hybridizing. What it does involve is injecting dye into the flowering stem of a white Phalaenopsis. It seems that these are selling for twice the price of undyed plants. So, what do you think about that?
There were queries about where to buy some of the rarer Eranthis - both the white ones in particular. This nursery, Rare Plants, supplies them:
http://rareplants.co.uk
I had to use the search facility, because Eranthis don't appear on the menu list, but they are there.
Also, Crug Farm have Eranthis pinnatifida:
http://www.crug-farm.co.uk
Edrom Nurseries have a range that includes E. pinnatifida:
http://www.edrom-nurseries.co.uk
Wallet warning - the unusual ones aren't cheap!
Our sites of the week are here:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
Spring Term 2011/12
Sites of the week : Week 3
1 An interesting gardening blog from an author.
You Grow Girl
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/
2 The NGS website helps you search for open gardens and gives last minute additions.
National Gardens Scheme
http://ngs.org.uk/
3 Specialist nursery in Kent for lavender and rosemary
Downderry Nursery
http://downderry-nursery.co.uk/
4 Better known to gardeners as the Henry Doubleday Research Association, or Ryton Organic Gardens.
Garden Organic
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/
5 This page shows garden events in 2012, but if you click on Main Index, there is much, much more.
Garden Hive
http://www.gardenhive.com/garden/ev
Jo Hanslip
January 2012
Our main topic for the week was The Garden in February. Here's the handout:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
THE GARDEN IN FEBRUARY
February can be a difficult month for working outside – it really does more harm than good to work on soaking wet soil. If the soil is very wet and there are things you absolutely must do, work off boards. Winter flowering plants are still at their peak this month, and the first flowers of spring are starting to appear, together with a few early bees and other insects.
If the weather conditions permit, a good mulch can be laid now, 2-3 inches thick and will smother new weed seedlings. Be careful not to cover small spring bulbs such as winter aconites.
Before plants really get into growth, use the opportunity to remove debris from the garden, and to take down or repair fences and trellises.
1 Hedges
Prune overgrown deciduous hedges as early in the month as possible, before the birds start nesting. Save some of the prunings if you need twiggy peasticks.
Weeds will be germinating in the shelter of the hedge bottom, and should be controlled before they get out of hand.
2 Kitchen Garden
If digging conditions are difficult, cover the area with polythene – this will keep rain off and keep the ground a little dryer and warmer. Just roll the polythene back when you want to dig, and cover it over again when you have finished.
Prepare trenches for runner beans (and sweet peas) which need a moisture retentive soil to crop well. Choose a sunny site and dig out a trench two spades deep. Half fill it with material that holds moisture well, like newspaper and kitchen waste, then refill with soil. Mark the position, so you won’t forget where it is when planting later in the spring.
Autumn fruiting raspberries should be pruned now – cut the old canes right back to ground level.
Feed established fruit trees and soft fruit – pelleted chicken manure is good, or rose fertiliser – the high potash content will give fruiting a boost. A good mulch will also be beneficial.
Protect peaches, nectarines and almonds against peach leaf curl. The fungal spores are spread by splashing rain, so small wall-trained trees can be protected by covering with a sheet of plastic from now until late spring. Chemical control is not so effective, but the best is a copper fungicide, sprayed twice, two weeks apart.
Rhubarb can be forced for an early crop. Cover with a large bucket or small dustbin containing loose straw for added warmth. The first sticks should be ready in 6-8 weeks. Do not force the same clump next year.
Strawberries can be forced for an earlier crop. Cover with cloches towards the end of the month. Make sure there is ventilation at each end, and when the plants are in flower, remove the cloches during the day to let pollinating insects in. Alternatively, pot up some plants and move them into the greenhouse. Feed with a high potash fertiliser and water well.
Order potatoes and asparagus if you have not already done so. Early potatoes should be ‘chitted’ before planting next month. For an early crop of potatoes in May, plant some early potatoes in containers in the greenhouse. Half fill a 15 litre pot with compost and put a seed tuber in. As the plant grows, top up with more compost until full. After harvest, refresh the compost with fertilizer and re-use, for example, for summer containers.
Feed overwintered vegetables, including asparagus beds.
Plant out Jerusalem artichokes and shallots.
Garlic should be planted before the end of February. The soft-necked variety ‘Solent White’ produces lots of small cloves that store well. Hard-neck varieties, such as ‘Lautrec Wight’ or ‘Purple Moldovan’, produce large cloves. Plant cloves 6 inches apart and bury so that the tip is just below the surface of the soil.
Prepare seed beds by covering the ground with clear polythene – this will raise the temperature a little – and apply a general fertiliser 2 weeks before sowing.
Sow vegetables under cloches, including beetroot, carrots, lettuce, spinach, turnips, cauliflowers, radish and salad onions. Broad beans and peas can be sown in the open ground, but protect from mice. Alternatively, sow broad beans in pots indoors, ready for planting out in late March and harvesting in June and July.
Deep beds can be created for growing vegetable on heavy soils. Drainage and fertility are improved and there is no problem with soil compaction.
Check soil alkalinity and top dress with lime if necessary.
If you want a new herb garden prepare the site now. Lighten heavy soil by incorporating well-rotted compost at the rate of two buckets per square yard. Herbs grow best in warm, still air so do well between hedges of sage, lavender or rosemary. Planting annual sunflowers can make a good temporary shelter.
If the weather is dry and not too cold, a first sowing of parsley can be made in the open towards the end of the month. Parsley prefers a damp, shady site.
Complete the pruning of apple and pear trees.
Prune outdoor grapevines to encourage new growth.
Shorten sideshoots on trained gooseberries back to two or three buds
If you put grease bands on your fruit trees, inspect them now to see if they need reapplying.
Hazel (cobnuts and filberts) will be flowering, with bunches of catkins. If you only have room for one shrub, make sure that it is a self-fertile variety. Hazel can be coppiced every few years to make sticks and poles – some stands of hazel coppice are a thousand years old.
3 Beds and borders
Weeding and maintaining the border should be completed now, before easily damaged new shoots develop on shrubs and perennials.
Winter flowering pansies and primulas should be dead-headed regularly to encourage flowering
Sweet peas can be sown outside towards the end of the month (see above for making a trench). To give protection, cover seed with cloches made from the top half of a plastic bottle. If you want to sow plants on the cordon system, erect the supporting framework of posts and wires before sowing.
Cut back the dead stems of last year’s perennials, before new growth gets in the way. If you have epimediums, helleborus orientalis or ornamental grasses, now is a good time for cutting back any tatty foliage, before new growth really starts. If the weather is severe, and there is no sign of new growth, wait until the end of the month to do this – the dead foliage will provide a little protection.
Unless the border is newly planted, it will need a dressing of fertiliser in spring. Use a fertiliser fairly high in phosphate but low in nitrogen.
If you have a south-facing border, particularly next to a wall, consider making an exotic border. Improve drainage by digging in coarse grit – sharp sand can make drainage worse. Many tender perennial plants have a chance of surviving here, and at least, it will make a superb border of exotic annuals.
Water tubs and wall trained plants if necessary.
4 Bulbs
Begonias and gloxinias can be bought now as tubers and half buried (no deeper or they may rot) in trays or pots of compost at about 13°C. Plant begonia tubers hollow side uppermost. When the shoots are about one inch high, transfer them into 5-inch pots and grow on in plenty of light. Water as needed by standing the pot in a saucer of water – surface water on the tuber can cause it to rot. Feed weekly with a liquid fertiliser.
Lilies will be available now. Choose ones that are firm and fat, rather than withered and soft. They like the same sort of moisture-retentive soil as sweet peas, so dig in plenty of well-rotted compost. If necessary, add grit to improve drainage. Plant so that the bulbs are covered by 4-8 inches of soil, or in large pots. Many of the commonly available lilies are stem-rooting (they form roots from the lower parts of the stem as well as from the bulb). Particularly when planting in pots, make sure that the bulb is deep enough to accommodate these. The exception on planting depth is the Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum), which is planted with the top just below the soil surface.
Bring in any remaining pots of bulbs that have been forced.
Snowdrops and winter aconites establish best if planted ‘in the green’ (immediately after flowering). These can be bought from specialist nurseries. Overcrowded clumps of snowdrops can be split now, after flowering, and replanted immediately at the same depth. Latest thinking, however, suggests that May is a better time to do this, as the bulbs start into dormancy – the critical thing is to not allow the bulbs to dry out, and to replant immediately.
Gladioli will flower earlier if sprouted in the greenhouse. Place single layers of corms in trays in a temperature of 10C in full light. Watch for signs of aphids on the sprouts. Plant out in March. Discard any diseased corms.
Although they can be difficult, now is the time to try potting up some tubers of Anemone coronaria – usually either the single-flowered De Caen Group, or the double flowered St Bridgid Group. Soak overnight before potting.
5 Trees and shrubs
Small flowered clematis that flower in late summer – Clematis orientalis, C. texensis, C. tangutica and C. viticella species and varieties, for example – should be hard pruned towards the end of the month. Prune each stem back to about 12 inches, cutting to a pair of strong healthy buds. These clematis are ideal for growing through climbing roses, as both plants can be pruned at the same time.
Large flowered clematis that flower in mid to late summer should be pruned at the same time. Remove all thin weak stems and prune the remaining ones back by around a third to a strong pair of buds. Prune some stems more heavily to promote growth from the base.
Summer and winter jasmines (Jasminum officinale and J. nudiflorum) can be pruned now. Weak, dead and damaged shoots should be removed. For winter jasmine, immediately after flowering, shorten all side shoots and long straggly growth to within 2 inches of the main stem to encourage a bushy habit and plenty of flowering shoots next winter. Thin overgrown plants of summer jasmine by removing some of the older branches completely, either at ground level or where they join the main stems. Don’t just shorten the stems or you will encourage lots of thin bushy shoots.
Side shoots on wisteria can be shortened to about an inch, unless you still want the plant to cover more space.
Pot-grown shrubs can be top-dressed with new compost – you can mix in a slow release fertiliser if you wish.
For the hardier evergreens, such as laurel, pruning can be done now. Thin out overgrown evergreens by removing entire branches where they join the stem or at ground level. More tender plants, such as choisya, are best pruned in summer.
Cut back mahonias to encourage new growth.
Cornus, grown for their coloured stems, can be cut back now.
Firm in recently planted shrubs and trees if loosened by weather.
6 Propagation
Root cuttings can be taken of certain perennials, including Acanthus, Anchusa, Brunnera, Catananche (Cupid’s Dart), Dicentra (bleeding heart), Limonium (sea lavender), Papaver orientale (oriental poppy) and Romneya (tree poppy). Put the pots in a cold frame or stand in a sheltered place outside and cover with a cloche. When growth starts, pot up the cuttings individually and grow them on to get them well established before planting out, usually next year.
Take basal cuttings of hardy perennials that are quick off the mark to start growing – anthemis for example.
Divide and pot up single rooted pieces of clump-forming perennials such as Michaelmas daisies. These can be grown on and planted out in April.
Low branches of shrubs such as rhododendrons can be layered.
7 Lawns
Aerate a lawn suffering from poor drainage.
Cut an established lawn for the first time during mild weather, if growth has started. Set the mower blades higher than usual for the first two or three cuts of the year. If you have worm casts, brush out with a stiff brush or besom to avoid little flattened patches of soil where weeds can get a hold.
Where lawns are not thriving, rake out the thatch to allow light, air and water through to the roots.
Remove lawn weeds – dig them out with a narrow trowel or old knife, or a daisy grubber. For lawn weedkillers, only use if the weather is mild and dry; otherwise wait until next month.
8 Greenhouse and windowsill
Hardy annuals can be grown from seed and planted out later in spring. They can be sown a few seeds to a module, and then planted out without thinning. Alternatively, wait until next month and sow directly into the ground.
Dahlias and chrysanthemums stored over winter should be brought into growth now if you want to take cuttings from the new shoots. Put the potted tubers/stools in full light and water well. Newly bought stools can be treated in the same way.
Tender perennials that have been overwintered can now be brought into growth, including fuchsias and marguerites. Repot into fresh compost, prune back and water well.
Tomato plants can be sown either in a heated greenhouse or on a warm windowsill from the middle of the month. Tomato seed needs light to germinate, so cover thinly with sieved compost or with vermiculite.
Start sowing half-hardy annuals and half-hardy perennials, which need a longer growing season before flowering. Best sown in heat in February, for example, are Antirrhinum, Begonia, Lobelia, Nicotiana and Petunia. Pelargoniums should already be germinating, but can be sown early this month for later flowering. Make the first sowings in a heated propagator since most require a germination temperature of 21C(70F).
Tender annuals and perennials to sow now are Browallia, Coleus, Exacum, Gerbera, winter cherry (Solanum capsicastrum) Cape primrose (Streptocarpus) and Black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata). Clarkia, Salpiglossis and Schizanthus are annuals that can be sown now and grown as pot plants. Sow at a temperature of 16°C, prick out into small pots and finally pot up 3 to a 5-inch pot. For really cheap and cheerful pot plants, do the same with annual bedding, like petunia, busy lizzies and antirrhinums.
Ventilate the greenhouse as often as necessary. Watch for the first signs of fungal disease.
Tidy up potted ferns, potting on into larger pots if necessary. Plants can be divided at this time. Use the vigorous crowns from the outside of the old plants.
Examine houseplants to see whether they are in need of renovation after winter, or are best discarded and replaced.
Cacti and succulents are still in their resting phase. Don’t allow them to become dust dry – a tiny amount of water will keep the roots functional – but keep in good light.
Grape vines can be pruned while they are dormant. Don’t leave it long enough for the sap to start rising or they will bleed badly. Cut back side shoots to leave one or two buds. Main stems that are getting too long can be cut back.
Watch out for the first signs of greenhouse pests such as whitefly and greenfly.
Hippeastrums should be in full flower – feed weekly, and do not allow to go short of water.
Water indoor azaleas with rain water, keeping the compost constantly moist.
If you don’t have a cold frame, consider whether one would be useful. Not only are they useful in spring for hardening off young plants, but also in winter, they provide a little extra protection for borderline hardy plants. Choose a sheltered site in full light but out of the prevailing wind.
9 Sheds and tools
Check that all machinery and tools are in good working order.
• Remove rust from tools with emery paper or a wire brush
• Wipe blades with an oily cloth or spray with WD40 or similar
• Wipe wooden tool handles with raw linseed oil or teak oil
• Use white spirit to remove dried sap from knife blades and secateurs
• Oil the hinges of penknives
• Sharpen knives regularly
• Hang tools on the shed wall, so they are easy to find
Finish cleaning pots and seed trays ready for sowing.
Stock up on pots, labels, twine and other sundries.
10 Wildlife
The earliest flowers – spring bulbs, hellebores, etc – will provide nectar for bees and early butterflies – check that you have some nectar bearing plants in the garden for these early visitors.
Put out regular supplies of food and water for the birds – some resident bird species may be already nesting during this month if the weather is mild.
Moles will be active, so look for signs.
Ponds will be coming alive with mating frogs and toads, giving gallons of spawn that will hatch into tadpoles by mid-March.
11 Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb
24 - 26 February 2012. Information here: http://www.experiencewakefield.co.uk/at
Jo Hanslip
Revised January 2012
We also lookad at some items of news - here they are:
2 February 2012
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News
Moss under the microscope: could it have been responsible for the evolution of life as we know it?
Primitive moss-like plants could have triggered the cooling of the Earth some 470 million years ago, say researchers.
A study published in Nature Geoscience may help explain why temperatures gradually began to fall, culminating in a series of "mini ice ages".
Until now it had been thought that the process of global cooling began 100 million years later, when larger plants and trees emerged.
The simple plants' interactions with rocks are believed to be the cause.
"The humble moss has created the climate which we enjoy today, from which the life we see all around us evolved," said Prof Tim Lenton of Exeter University, one of the lead researchers.
Carbon dioxide insulates the planet, rather like a duvet wrapped around it: the higher the concentration of CO2, the higher the average global temperature.
Atmospheric levels of the gas 480 million years ago are thought to have been 16 times higher than they are now, and average global temperatures are thought to have been 25C, around 10C higher than they are now.
But by 460 million years ago, CO2 levels had fallen by half and the planet began to cool, allowing the formation of the polar ice caps.
The question is: what caused the drop in CO2 levels? The answer, according to an experiment by Prof Lenton and his colleague Prof Liam Dolan of Oxford University is "moss".
According to Prof Dolan, the invasion of the land by moss was a "pivotal" time in our history. "It brought about huge changes to our climate," he said.
The researchers wanted to investigate whether their interaction with rocks, in a process known as chemical weathering, could have been responsible for the drop in CO2 levels.
Weathering involves the mosses extracting nutrients from rock formations by dissolving them with acid. This chemical reaction also leads to CO2 reacting with the rocks and being removed from the atmosphere.
By studying this process with modern mosses, the researchers found that the plants' appetite for CO2 is voracious and could indeed explain the drop in temperature.
9 January 2012
Carbon emissions 'will defer Ice Age' By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News
The climate, if not species, of an Ice Age "ought" to return within 1,500 years
Human emissions of carbon dioxide will defer the next Ice Age, say scientists.
The last Ice Age ended about 11,500 years ago, and when the next one should begin has not been entirely clear. Researchers used data on the Earth's orbit and other things to find the historical warm interglacial period that looks most like the current one.
In the journal Nature Geoscience, they write that the next Ice Age would begin within 1,500 years - but emissions have been so high that it will not.
"At current levels of CO2, even if emissions stopped now we'd probably have a long interglacial duration determined by whatever long-term processes could kick in and bring [atmospheric] CO2 down," said Luke Skinner from Cambridge University.
Dr Skinner's group - which also included scientists from University College London, the University of Florida and Norway's Bergen University - calculates that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would have to fall below about 240 parts per million (ppm) before the glaciation could begin.
The current level is around 390ppm.
Other research groups have shown that even if emissions were shut off instantly, concentrations would remain elevated for at least 1,000 years, with enough heat stored in the oceans potentially to cause significant melting of polar ice and sea level rise.
Orbital wobbles
The root causes of the transitions from Ice Age to interglacial and back again are the subtle variations in the Earth's orbit known as the Milankovitch cycles, after the Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovic who described the effect nearly 100 years ago.
Glaciation and its reverse are related to cycles discovered by Milutin Milankovic
The variations include the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, the degree to which its axis is inclined, and the slow rotation of its axis.
These all take place on timescales of tens of thousands of years.
The precise way in which they change the climate of the Earth from warm interglacial to cold Ice Age and back every 100,000 years or so is not known.
On their own, they are not enough to cause the global temperature difference of about 10C between Ice Age and interglacial. The initial small changes are amplified by various factors including the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as warming begins, and absorption of the gas by the oceans as the ice re-forms.
It is also clear that each transition is different from previous ones, because the precise combination of orbital factors does not repeat exactly - though very similar conditions come around every 400,000 years.
The differences from one cycle to the next are thought to be the reason why interglacial periods are not all the same length.
Using analysis of orbital data as well as samples from rock cores drilled in the ocean floor, Dr Skinner's team identified an episode called Marine Isotope Stage 19c (or MIS19c), dating from about 780,000 years ago, as the one most closely resembling the present.
The transition to the Ice Age was signalled, they believe, by a period when cooling and warming seesawed between the northern and southern hemispheres, triggered by disruptions to the global circulation of ocean currents.
If the analogy to MIS19c holds up, this transition ought to begin within 1,500 years, the researchers say, if CO2 concentrations were at "natural" levels. As things stand, they believe, it will not.
Loving CO2
The broad conclusions of the team were endorsed by Lawrence Mysak, emeritus professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who has also investigated the transitions between Ice Ages and warm interglacials.
"The key thing is they're looking about 800,000 years back, and that's twice the 400,000-year cycle, so they're looking at the right period in terms of what could happen in the absence of anthropogenic forcing," he told BBC News.
Action that helps cope with the effects of climate change - for example construction of barriers to protect against rising sea levels, or conversion to crops capable of surviving high temperatures and drought. He suggested that the value of 240ppm CO2 needed to trigger the next glaciation might however be too low - other studies suggested the value could be 20 or even 30ppm higher.
"But in any case, the problem is how do we get down to 240, 250, or whatever it is? Absorption by the oceans takes thousands or tens of thousands of years - so I don't think it's realistic to think that we'll see the next glaciation on the [natural] timescale," Prof Mysak explained.
Groups opposed to limiting greenhouse gas emissions are already citing the study as a reason for embracing humankind's CO2 emissions.
The UK lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation, for example, has flagged up a 1999 essay by astronomers Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, who argued that: "The renewal of ice-age conditions would render a large fraction of the world's major food-growing areas inoperable, and so would inevitably lead to the extinction of most of the present human population.
"We must look to a sustained greenhouse effect to maintain the present advantageous world climate. This implies the ability to inject effective greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the opposite of what environmentalists are erroneously advocating."
Luke Skinner said his group had anticipated this kind of reception.
"It's an interesting philosophical discussion - 'would we better off in a warm [interglacial-type] world rather than a glaciation?' and probably we would," he said. "But it's missing the point, because where we're going is not maintaining our currently warm climate but heating it much further, and adding CO2 to a warm climate is very different from adding it to a cold climate.
"The rate of change with CO2 is basically unprecedented, and there are huge consequences if we can't cope with that."
2 February 2012
Snowdrop fanciers and their mania By Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine
Forget trainspotting and bird twitching, a snowdrop hunting craze is starting to take hold.
Understated they may be, but snowdrops have a very dedicated following. Record prices are being paid for single bulbs and a lucrative industry is developing to satisfy the demand of the growing number of galanthophiles - or snowdrop fanciers to the uninitiated.
Not native to the UK, no-one can say for sure when snowdrops were brought into the country. But they became fashionable in the mid-19th Century when the small, white flower caught the eye of the Victorians. In recent years they have become something of a cult flower again.
February is the month a lot of varieties flower in the UK and when things seriously kick off for galanthophiles. Every year there are an increasing number of snowdrop events and study days.
Snowdrop facts
The genus is galanthus
There are 20 species of wild snowdrop in the world
There are up to 2,000 cultivated varieties
Snowdrops are not native to the UK
The countries where they grow include Germany Italy, Poland, Greece, Ukraine and Turkey
Most are hardy and easy to grow
There's also an annual gala, due to be held in Devon in a few weeks time, that attracts people from Australia, Japan and the US. The tickets sell out as fast as a Justin Bieber concert and gardening chatrooms are buzzing with talk of it. The biggest snowdrop event is in Germany at the end of the month, it attracts over 3,000 galanthophiles.
"A mania has developed around snowdrops," says Matt Bishop, a leading expert on the plant and co-author of Snowdrops: A Monograph Of Cultivated Galanthus.
"There has been a big increase in interest in them. Like anything in life, there are fashions in plants and snowdrops just seem to have caught people's imagination."
Why this has happened is a question even the experts find hard to fully explain - including Dr John Grimshaw, of Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire. He oversees a snowdrop collection of 250 cultivated varieties. He says orchids are a good comparison when it comes to the level of devotion that snowdrops inspire.
"But it is still a little bit odd that such a humble plant can create such passion - obsession even. Many plants have fanciers, but snowdrops are far less obvious than most others."
It's equally hard to say what type of person is a galanthophile.
"It's all sorts but that's what makes it good fun," says Maggie Danes, a snowdrop fancier. "There is a real social side to it. You get to know people at the events. You just get bitten by the bug. Snowdrops are so unassuming, but there is so much to them as well."
Collecting 'frenzy'
And galanthophiles are all over the world. Grimshaw, also co-author of a book on snowdrops, is off to Australia later this year to lecture on the flowers. He has also been to the US and Europe to speak to galanthophiles.
They are also all ages. Bishop is hosting a Snowdrop Study Day next week. It is the second year he has organised the event at the Garden House in Devon, where he is head gardener. Of the people attending, ages range from teenagers to those pushing their 90s.
Continue reading the main story
Snowdrop varieties
Galanthus 'Green Tear' was found in the Netherlands and is distinctly and strongly green inside and out. A single bulb sold on eBay last months for £360. Available stock at present is very limited
'S Arnott' is a classic garden snowdrop - inexpensive, freely available, with a strong scent
Galanthus plicatus 'E A Bowles' has a pure white flower in which the petals are all the same length. It is very highly sought-after and expensive. Last year one bulb sold at auction for £357
Source: Dr John Grimshaw
Some are getting increasingly competitive when it comes to getting what they want. One collector paid £360 on eBay last month for a single Galanthus "Green Tear" bulb. It's a new record price for the most expensive snowdrop bulb ever sold, say experts.
The appeal of snowdrops is down to the time of year when most varieties flower, say many enthusiasts. While a few bloom in autumn, most come out in January, February and March.
Carolyn Walker fell in love with the variety of snowdrops
"It is much easier to appreciate a flower in January than May when everything else is blooming," says Carolyn Walker, an American galanthophile from Pennsylvania.
Bishop agrees: "They are humble and meek but when there are so few other plants around it really sharpens your appreciation of them."
The large variety of snowdrops also plays a part and different cultivars (varieties grown under cultivation) are being developed all the time.
When Bishop and Grimshaw published their snowdrop monograph in 2002 it included 500 varieties. They are currently updating the book, which will be republished later this year, and estimate they will have to include up to 1,500 new cultivars.
The sheer variety has created some avid collectors, like the buyer of the "Green Tear" bulb.
"That bulb went for quite an extraordinary price," says Grimshaw. "There is a growing industry around snowdrops, some people think they can make quick money. It's collectors who are fuelling this frenzy. They want the very latest thing.
"When new cultivars are offered for sale for the first time, initially there are just three, four or five plants available. That's in the whole of the world. People are prepared to sharpen their elbows and dig deep into their pockets to buy them."
Thefts
At the end of most galanthophile events there are usually sales which are mayhem, say organisers.
"Things get very competitive, especially if there is something new on offer," says Bishop. "It ends up being a bit of a bun fight, but it's all good-natured."
But even more common varieties are in demand. Avon Bulbs, a specialist bulb growers and suppliers in Somerset, published its latest catalogue a few weeks ago. The 100 varieties on sale range from a few pounds to up to £60 for a bulb. Many have sold out already, says owner Chris Ireland-Jones.
"I discovered there wasn't just one kind of snowdrop and began planting other common varieties," says Walker, who also runs a nursery selling snowdrops. "That in turn evolved into collecting. The more you work with snowdrops, the more you appreciate the differences."
Being a galanthophile from outside Europe, and a few other countries like Turkey, takes an extra level of devotion.
In a lot of countries many varieties are not readily available. Snowdrops are covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites).
This happened after the mass exploitation of wild snowdrops in Turkey in the 1980s, says Grimshaw. It covers all types and means to sell a single bulb you need a licence and the right documentation.
"It keeps most of the interesting cultivars out of the US," says Walker, who knows American galanthophiles who have travel to Europe just to see snowdrops.
"It is illegal for snowdrops to cross international boundaries without special Cites permits. Even with these permits, the last US attempt to import them from England ended with the plants being turned back at US Customs."
But with a lot of love, devotion and money, some US galanthophiles have put together private collections.
"I never turn down an opportunity to visit them," says Walker. "But some people don't want to publicise their collections because of fear of theft."
Such thefts have happened in the UK.
It's not quite the contemporary equivalent of 17th-Century Holland's tulip fever, but for galanthophiles snowdrops have it all. They're hardy, but look beautiful.
They have a lot of history, but are developing all the time. And of course they are the first flowers of spring.
Next week, we're going to look at Pruning, so don't forget to do the homework!
Stay warm!
Jo