Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about snow and snowdrops. You may remember me from such similarly-themed posts as “Snowdrops And Sentiment”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
No doubt you can tell that it snowed again. The guy I live with says December, January, and February are the dry months here (February averages eleven millimeters of precipitation), but I guess not, this winter.
It’s forty-nine degrees here (9C) right now, with lots of melting. The humidity is twenty-seven percent, so it’s actually quite nice out, though very bright, thanks to the sun on the snow.
The only thing I have for today is some talk about the “bulk snowdrops”, Galanthus elwesii, whence the fairly hysterical title for my post.
If you saw my post “Crocuses And Snowdrops” you’ll remember that the guy I live with bought some “bulk snowdrops”, which you can do through one of the online bulb brokers.
I’ve already talked about the failures associated with the “bulk snowdrops” and the guy I live with said that’s probably enough.
Anyway this is the third time, I think, that this has been tried, even though Homer Simpson’s “Trying is the first step toward failure” echoed in his mind, but, for once, the bulbs were planted with really good roots because he used the right kind of soil to root them in.
Today we went out to fill the bird feeders, and then look at the “bulk snowdrops”. There are other snowdrops in flower but he was interested in his “experimental” ones.
The guy I live with had just watched Jason and the Argonauts, so naturally he pointed to a snowdrop and said “There! And there! And still another! And more!”
This wasn’t terribly interesting to me, and I suspect won’t be to anyone else, but the guy I live with said this result is much better than having two hundred bulbs rot to nothing, and considering that he’s “only spent about a hundred million dollars on now-dead plants”, this was pretty good, especially if the bulbs actually survive for more than a year. (Oh. If you’re wondering about the movie reference, it’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqRjDGAJ5dc
which was a bit too scary for me.)
The guy I live with said the movie should have showed colchicums in flower, but I didn’t understand that.
And that, my dear friends, is absolutely it for today.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me lying on the bed, thinking about things, the way I do.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Rather than bulk purhases I am inclined to visit the DIY shops here which always have potfuls of common snowdrops on sale a this time of the year. One regularly finds an odd/interesting one among them. It’s much easier to leave somebody else do the growing and to then select.
There’s nothing like that around here; in fact, I suspect that there are no snowdrop enthusiasts within a thousand miles in any direction from our house. People do grow them here, of course, but fanaticism is limited to one particular garden.
The guy I live with says there are snowdrop extravaganzas “back east”, where they’ve become popular.
The experiment with the “bulk” ones is the last time he’s going to try this.
It is something I see those folks in the east doing regularly. People often comment, “this is one from a bulk buy.” It’s a bit of pot luck, I suppose. You buy several hundred bulbs and hope a few will show variation.
According to the guy I live with, you buy them in bulk and then hope they’ll live. Sometimes there’s variation, sometimes not. They cost about $0.40 a bulb, but are often drier than is desirable, when they arrive.
As the guy I live with said to a well-known person in horticulture, would you rather have a fancy, expensive named variety that increases very slowly, or drifts of snowdrops as far as the eye can see?
Drifts, always drifts!
Exactly.
Snowdropss here, there an efurrywhere!!!
GUY you DID it!!!! You growed them Snodropss an they are thrivin….wee are so happy fore you!!
An Mani wee toetallee love reedin about Guy’ss Gardenin Endevurrss!!
Lovelee snow there. Wee had a storm over nite an have 4-5 inchess. Iss FREEZIN cold with North wind….BellaSita iss happy so mee iss happy 😉
Wishin youss’ a furabuluss weekend.
***purrss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks; same to you.
It’s not very cold here and maybe a lot of the snow will be gone by next Monday, when it’s supposed to snow again.
Hopefully this is a trend that means it won’t be so horribly dry later in the year, but you never know.
Wee wudner what this Summer holdss fore us two Mani an Guy!
Wee broiled last July an August an it was pawfull….
Weather iss so unpredictabell issn’t it?
It’s getting weirder and weirder, like everything else.
(We haven’t been getting email notifications of comments on the blog, either. It just suddenly stopped.)
I was told by a very elderly neighbor (a reliable source of gardening advice, now gone to her reward) that snow drops have to be moved when the leaves are green. Having adhered to that advice for many years (and with ongoing assistance from squirrels or something) I now have a carpet of snowdrops in many areas of the garden. But I certainly haven’t ended up with much variation with this approach.
After hours of pretty serious rain over the last 2 days it is very cold today (everything but the heated birdbath is frozen solid), and the snowdrops are all lying out their full length on the ground in a mass fainting spell. I suspect they will be up if not about as it warms up. Today’s expedition is to a large indoor botanic garden in a near by city for a cactus and succulent show. It won’t be cold in there!
Ceci
The guy I live with says that snowdrops “in the green” is a very controversial subject in the snowdrop world, because a lot of people say the roots can be damaged that way.
But here, now that it no longer rains or snows after August, planting snowdrops “in the green” in April means that, even if a few roots are damaged, there are at least still some roots, and by the time autumn rolls around, the bulbs will have been established in the ground.
Otherwise, especially with autumn-flowering snowdrops, you’re expecting the dry bulbs planted at that time of year to produce both roots and leaves before it gets cold, which is a lot to ask of a bulb. Especially in heavier soils which are difficult to wet here, except when it snows and then melts.
That’s why bulbs acquired in autumn get planted in an ultra-gritty mix outside, watered like crazy until the grow roots, and then are planted out in the garden.
Snowdrops (bulk or otherwise) are surely a sign that Spring can’t be too far off, no? Yeah, the guy you live with is right about February being one of the drier months. But certainly not this year! Yikes, I didn’t need to refresh the mountains of snow shoveled off the sidewalks and [oversized] driveway. That pile of ice may be around until June at this rate! Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the more pleasant temps for a few days.
The snow seems never-ending. It’s supposed to snow again early next week.
Winter used to be the guy I live with’s favorite gardening season, because everything slows down, but there are still things in flower. There used to be snowdrops, crocuses, and hellebores in flower here in February.
He said he’s been rethinking that idea after the last few winters, but at least he doesn’t have to read about people talking about “winter watering” (which just makes him roll his eyes).
Well, I did the same with bulk Canna. I got a particular cultivar very cheaply because it was so late in their season. I can get random cultivars (such as tall yellow, tall red, tall pink, short yellow, etc.) even more cheaply. No shame.
Cheap plants are often good, though sometimes not so much.
They are not so good if a particular cultivar is desired. Some of us just want random Canna cultivars. I have found only one that I dislike, and ironically, it is one that we selected. (We grow a few things just because they work well within our public landscapes, even if we dislike them.)
The guy I live with says that anything that grows well is probably okay, so long as it doesn’t grow too well.
There are cannas here that are perennial, believe it or not. If they’re grown right smack against a house, especially a brick one.
Cannas have been fun, but are so prolific that I will need to give many more of them away; but unfortunately, they are not so compliant with the style of the landscapes at work. We grow only a few in the ground, and will grow only five in pots on a patio.
The guy I live with likes cannas, but they’re not really suitable for this garden.
Dear dog, you manage to look super soft and cuddly still even while explaining about the guy you live with’s bulk snowdrops. I am surprised you neglected to say, “third time’s the charm.” Perhaps the omission is the result of all the thinking you do, and you recognize the cliche. Let’s see, 200 x .40–egads, he *must* have spent a hundred million dollars. Thanks for the link to the Jason and the Argonauts movie, which was scary but left me wondering how the guy swam to the ship in heavy armor.
Thanks; I am pretty soft and cuddly, especially at this time of year.
I hesitated using that cliche because the two hundred snowdrops weren’t exactly the same as the other two experiments. They were on sale (like maybe half price), and arrived very late.
(I should also mention that people pay a lot more, and I mean a lot more, for single bulbs of some snowdrops. I know that’s weird, but check out some of the prices for certain houseplants. Like monsteras. One sold for $38,000.)
I guess the armor became very light for swimming. Some sort of magic. The guy I live with said Tom Hanks thought Jason was the best movie ever made.
Same here Mani! Weather iss weerd! Peepell are weerd! WerdPress iss weerd!! Wee use REEDER 98% of THE time to make sure wee not miss postss! “Notiess” are ‘gone with THE wind” it seemss….
Everything is weird. Right now, the guy I live with has to look at the blog to see if there are any comments. Instead of getting an email.
He says there’s something going on with his “ISP”, whatever that is, and he says “they” know about it.
Congratulations on your guy’s snowdrop success. I can sympathize with the ‘spending millions of dollars to watch them rot” scenario. Happens here way too frequently. Our golden willow is covered in lovely soft grey pussies right now so a slight indication we are closer to Spring. However, another cold front and 10″ of snow over the next couple of days means Old Man Winter is reluctant to retire unto that good night.
No kidding; it’s supposed to get down to 0F here on Wednesday. Again. The guy I live with says he’s never seen a winter quite like this one, but the last few haven’t featured the typical warm days we always get in winter, so maybe complete weirdness has set in, for good.
He went out today to check on the “bulk” snowdrops; there are a lot of them up, and in flower. The real test will come next year, if they come up again. The guy I live with said he would try to remember to fertilize them with a tomato fertilizer after they’re done flowering.
The “regular” snowdrops are flowering here and there, right now.
Same here sum dayss Mani! ISP iss Inntynet Sirvice Purrvider….THE company what our Hu’manss’ connect to so wee can vissit an hang out.
Ourss nose two. An so does WerdPress…iss frustratin’!! FURRY frustratin! 😦
The guy I live with says things are working now. Sort of.
Same here Mani!!!
At leest wee all have Inntynet rite?