fall-blooming snowdrops | CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS

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Early-Blooming Snowdrops

The species snowdrop Galanthus reginae-olgae blooming in our garden in October with ‘Shell Pink’ lamium.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

Around this time every year, I start to get emails from customers and blog readers asking which early-blooming snowdrops will be available for purchase in our catalogue. When you see the photo above, you can understand why gardeners who appreciate snowdrops are trying to extend their season into early fall. Early snowdrops are beautiful in their own right but especially appreciated when not surrounded by the many other snowdrop cultivars that flower in the heart of the snowdrop season. And this beautiful clump of fresh white flowers is in full bloom when everything around it is going by for the year.

Highlighted in this post are five, early-blooming snowdrops that will be available in the 2020 catalogue. Keep in mind that exact bloom time is affected by how quickly the soil cools off in the fall and the amount of moisture available to the bulbs—warmer and drier falls seem to equate with later-blooming.

Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

Galanthus reginae-olgae looks a lot like the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, but it blooms reliably by mid-October in our garden, and it has a more rigidly upright habit.

G. reginae-olgae also lasts a long time—here it is looking a little worse for wear on December 3.

The G. reginae-olgae that we sell comes from bulb expert Charles Cresson who selected it as a form that thrives in our climate as opposed to the other forms of this species he has trialed. I too have tried G. reginae-olgae from other sources without success.

Galanthus elwesii ‘Potter’s Prelude’ begins to bloom in mid-November in our garden and can often last into January. It is a rare American snowdrop selected in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s.

‘Potter’s Prelude’s’ flowers are big and beautiful.

‘Potter’s Prelude’ is a great companion plant for fall-blooming camellias—here with the petals of ‘Winter’s Joy’.

‘Potter’s Prelude’ has beautiful foliage. The leaves of early-blooming snowdrops come out with or immediately after the flowers, which means that, if we have a hard winter, they can look somewhat battered when it is snowdrop shipping time in late February or early March.

Galanthus elwesii ‘Barnes’ is a November-blooming snowdrop so highly regarded in England that it has earned the coveted Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society, one of only 28 snowdrops to do so.

‘Barnes’ in our garden

‘Barnes’ also remains ornamental for a long period of time. It still looks great here at the very end of December.

Galanthus elwesii ‘Standing Tall’ is a very large and beautiful December-blooming snowdrop selected by bulb expert Charles Cresson in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, after many years of evaluation.

The big flowers have beautiful dark green markings.

It is a bold plant that can hold its own among evergreen groundcovers like the Chinese wild ginger in the photo.

Galanthus elwesii ‘Xmas’, a December-blooming snowdrop, originated at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC. I introduced it and named it ‘Xmas’ because it blooms around Christmas and has a distinct X on its inner segments.

‘Xmas’ is quite vigorous in my mid-Atlantic garden.

Each plant quickly produces two or three flowers.

‘Xmas’ is gorgeous on a sunny December day.

When you look through our catalogue in December, think about adding some of these beautiful, early snowdrops.

Carolyn

Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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New Snowdrops for 2019: Part One

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter interest with tags 'Armine' snowdrop, 'Art Noveau' snowdrop, 'Barnes' snowdrop, 'Godfrey Owen' snowdrop, 'Puck' snowdrop, Carolyn's Shade Gardens, collecting snowdrops, fall-blooming snowdrops, galanthus, Galanthus 'Armine', Galanthus 'Art Noveau', Galanthus 'Barnes', Galanthus 'Puck', Galanthus elwesii 'Barnes', Galanthus elwesii 'Godfrey Owen', Galanthus elwesii Hiemalis Group, Galanthus Godfrey Owen, Galanthus nivalis 'Puck', Galanthus Sprite, snowdrops for sale, snowdrops for sale U.S., snowdrops in the green, snowdrops in the US, snowdrops US, Sprite snowdrop on November 13, 2018 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

‘Godfrey Owen’, one of my all time favorite snowdrops.

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens has been selling snowdrops for almost 27 years, since we started the nursery in 1992, and we formalized the process with our first written catalogue in 2008. In 2010, we added a mail order option, and sales have grown exponentially due to our very loyal and satisfied customers in Pennsylvania and all over the US. We are getting ready to issue the 2019 Snowdrop Catalogue in December and want to give blog readers a preview of some of our new offerings.

‘Godfrey Owen’ looks beautiful in snow.

It is no surprise to me that ‘Godfrey Owen’ has recently been added to the very small group of snowdrops, 28 out of the over 2,500 named varieties, to receive the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. It is an elegant snowdrop that performs well in the garden while standing out from the crowd without looking at the label.

Looking at ‘Godfrey Owen’ is a pleasure from any angle, but here you can see the distinctive six outer segments.

Galanthus elwesii ‘Godfrey Owen’ has six pointed and concave, longer outer segments and six shorter inner segments. The inner markings are somewhat variable with two small dots at the apex sometimes joined to two smaller dots at the base. The flowers in my garden all originate from one bulb but have a mixture of markings. ‘Godfrey Owen’ was discovered in Shrewsbury around 1996 in a population of typical G. elwesii, the giant snowdrop, by renowned English galanthophile Margaret Owen and named for her husband.

‘Barnes’ blooms in the fall.

When snowdrops bloom in October or November, they really make a statement. Galanthus elwesii (Hiemalis Group) ‘Barnes’ is a lovely, fall-flowering cultivar of the giant snowdrop with well-formed outer segments and a heart-shaped mark on the inners. Considered by many to be the earliest blooming, sometimes in October, and best of the Hiemalis Group, it recently received the coveted Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in recognition of its superiority.

The name ‘Barnes’ originates from E.P. Barnes, a surgeon in Northampton, who selected an early-flowering form of G. elwesii and sent it to Oliver Wyatt, possibly in 1928. After 1973, a group of snowdrops labeled ‘Barnes’ was discovered at Wyatt’s home in Suffolk.

‘Art Nouveau’ is striking.

Confronted recently with hundreds of varieties of snowdrops, all in bloom, I gravitated immediately to the captivating elegance of Galanthus nivalis ‘Art Nouveau’. An artistically curved spathe, like a shepherd’s crook, tops the long, slender flower with bold markings inside and out. The outer segments are pointed and splashed with pale green, while the inners are almost as long as the outers and sport a darker green, heart-shaped mark. Given to Avon Bulbs by a famous garden in Normandy, France.

‘Armine’ has unusual markings.

Galanthus ‘Armine’ is a tall, easy-to-grow, hybrid snowdrop with large, well-proportioned flowers. It has a beautiful mark on the inner segment, which is clearly visible even when the flowers are not fully open. It was named in the late 1950s for the daughter of Brigadier and Mrs. Matthias, the owners of the famous (at least among galanthophiles) Giant Snowdrop Company in Gloucestershire. Lady Carolyn Elwes tells me that a Catholic nun came to visit Colesbourne Park a number of years ago and explained that she was the daughter for whom the snowdrop was named—how fun.

‘Armine’s’ inner mark is almost always visible.

‘Puck’ is a fun semi-double snowdrop.

‘Puck’ is a charming and quirky form of Galanthus nivalis, the common snowdrop, with three extra segments haphazardly arranged over the top of the normal three inner segments and three outer segments. The result is a fat, semi-double flower. Named for the mischievous fairy in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, who seems to have cast his spell on this snowdrop, and found in a woods in Devon.

‘Sprite’ has a unique look.

I am always looking for snowdrops that stand out from the crowd to add to my collection. When I toured snowdrop gardens in England, I realized that Galanthus ‘Sprite’ was not only beautiful but could also be easily identified without a label. The broad, round, bluntly pointed outer segments are painted with five or six distinct green lines with slight shading in between. A wide, green band covers 2/3 of the inner segments. Introduced about 10 years ago by the discerning horticulturist Alan Street at Avon Bulbs.

‘Sprite’ proudly displayed in the Avon Bulbs exhibit at the Royal Horticultural Society Early Spring Plant Fair in February 2018.

Look for another blog post soon profiling an additional seven new offerings for 2019.

Carolyn

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Curating a Plant Collection: Snowdrops or Otherwise

Posted in bulbs for shade, How to, my garden, snowdrops with tags Carolyn's Shade Gardens, collecting snowdrops, fall-blooming snowdrops, galanthus, idenfifying plants, plant collections, snowdrop, snowdrop bulbs, snowdrop catalogue, snowdrop plants, snowdrops, snowdrops for sale U.S. on December 6, 2016 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Galanthus reginae-olgae is the earliest snowdrop to bloom in my garden, around the third week of October.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

My garden is not a collection of plants, especially those that require any sort of extra maintenance. If you visit Carolyn’s Shade Gardens, you will see that most plantings are quite natural looking with a focus on natives. However, there are a few exceptions, and most of you know by now that I am an unapologetic collector of snowdrops. I also sell snowdrops, click here for the 2019 catalogue, and some of them are quite pricey, so I thought it would be helpful if I explained how I keep track of mine. This system can be used for any plant collection.

Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops to the US only. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are mail order only. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

‘Potter’s Prelude’ always flowers by mid-November and, weather permitting, continues into January.

My system involves written records on my computer and physical markings in the garden. There may be a fancy computerized plant database available, but I use a simple table with columns in a Word document. The first column is alphabetical and lists the complete botanical name of the snowdrop, including the species and cultivar names if applicable, e.g., Galanthus nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’. The remaining columns describe the pertinent information about the snowdrop for each location in the garden: date planted, exact location, number of plants, and source.

This is the ‘Brenda Troyle’ planting that corresponds to the first location entry below.

For example, ‘Brenda Troyle’ is listed in column one as Galanthus ‘Brenda Troyle’ as it is a hybrid with no species name like elwesii or nivalis. Column two describes location one: “2012, front walk next to Dbl Rose hellebore, 2 Cresson.” Column three describes location two: “2014, carriage house 2^nd bed on left, moved 1 Cresson.” It is very important that the location description is as detailed as possible so that if all your outdoor markings disappear, you still know where your snowdrop is located.

Another snowdrop blooming right now is Nancy Goodwin’s fall-blooming G. elwesii var. monostictus, which she shared with me in 2013. At the back of the clump is the metal tag and peeking out in front is the plastic stake.

Out in the garden, each snowdrop gets two markers. The first is a 10″ zinc plant marker produced by Bosmere, item H185, in sets of 10. Included is a carbon pencil, but I don’t use that to write on the markers. All labels in my garden are inscribed with an opaque paint marker made by Uchida, Decolor 200-S Black, and available at art supply stores. All other writing materials, including pencils and “permanent markers” wear off. I place the metal plant marker directly behind the snowdrop and record the full name, date acquired, and source.

Bosmere zinc plant markers

opaque paint marker

A paint marker is used to record the name, date acquired and source.

Each snowdrop is also marked with a second tag directly in front of the plant. For this, I use a 6″ Rapiclip plant label made by Luster Leaf in packages of 50. These plastic stakes are long and sturdy but flexible, not brittle. They can be pushed almost all the way into the ground and bend instead of breaking if you step on them. I write the same information on them with a paint marker.

Rapiclip plant labels

‘Foxgrove Magnet’ with its metal marker behind and plastic tag in front.

There are variations on my marking scheme. For example, this bed has random, unnamed, fall-blooming G. elwesii. Each clump has a plastic tag behind it describing its special characteristics, if any.

I am superstitious so if I plant dormant snowdrops in the fall, they get a reused plastic tag and part of a bamboo garden stake until they come up in the spring.

I also use bamboo poles, hammered solidly into the ground, if the snowdrops are planted in an area where a lot of leaves fall and obscure the metal and plastic stakes. The photo below shows what I found under the leaves.

I may not have remembered that this snowdrop grouping was there if it hadn’t been marked with the bamboo stake.

I realize that not everyone is obsessed with snowdrops, but this system can be used for any plant collection that has grown to the point where its size exceeds the mental capacity of the collector :-). I grow about 30 varieties of epimediums and keep a chronological handwritten record plus metal and plastic markers outside. European wood anemones get metal tags and a handwritten list. Mini hostas are marked with plastic tags and recorded haphazardly. The rest of the plants have to rely on invoices and various notations in garden journals. Every winter I consider making a complete database of all the plants at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens but the prospect is daunting.

Carolyn

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What’s Blooming in Mid-Fall?

Posted in Fall, Fall Color, How to, landscape design, my garden, Shade Perennials with tags 'Early Amethyst' beautyberry, American beautyberry, amsonia hubrichtii, anemone honorine joubert, Aster cordifolius, aster tartaricus, blue wood aster, Callicarpa americana, camellia 'Long Island Pink', Camellia 'Lu Shan Snow', Camellia 'Snow Flurry', Carolyn's Shade Gardens, Cyclamen hederifolim 'Album', Cyclamen hederifolium, fall-blooming camellias, fall-blooming snowdrops, Galanthus 'Tilebarn Jamie', Galanthus reginae-olgae, hardy cyclamen, hydrangea limelight, persicaria purple dragon, Sinonome toad-lily, threadleaf amsonia, Tricyrtis 'Sinonome' on November 9, 2014 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

‘Limelight’ hydrangea, native blue wood aster, and native brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) shine through October.

For me, fall has three seasons, early, middle, and late, and they do not conform to the calendar definition of fall. Early fall plants perform in September, a month that is technically summer until the equinox. Mid-fall plants peak in October, and late fall plants grace November. As far as I am concerned, December is winter no matter what the calendar says. The first post in this series covered September bloomers, for details click here. This post features perennials and shrubs that make a daily walk through my garden worthwhile in October, even as the weather cools. The next post will feature plants for November.

Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

As the weather cools in October, ‘Limelight’ hydrangea’s flowers take on this lovely pink hue.

Some of my other favorite Japanese anemones like ‘September Charm’ and ‘Pamina’ may extend into October, but ‘Honorine Joubert’ is the queen, blooming throughout the month. It also has the best habit and most flowers of any Japanese anemone that I grow.

Berries are very important in October, and none is more eye-catching than beautyberry, here ‘Early Amethyst’, an Asian variety.

The unusual purple berries are elegantly set off by the lime green leaves. When the leaves drop in November, the berries persist.

I actually prefer the cluster form and color of native callicarpa berries, but Callicarpa americana may have hardiness issues in our zone. I lost two of my three established plants last winter. The third is huge and vigorous though.

My ‘Red Dragon’ fleece flower bloomed beautifully this year, and the purple leaves still look great in October.

October is the month for fall-blooming hardy cyclamen and the wonderful leaves remain gorgeous all winter (photo taken at Chanticleer).

‘Album’ is a white-blooming form of hardy cyclamen.

‘Sinonome’ toad-lily is another outstanding October plant and continues full strength until the first frost. This photo was taken October 23, and plenty of unopened buds remain.

A close up of ‘Sinonome’s orchid like flowers.

Another toad-lily with a beautiful habit blooming in October at Welkinweir Estate Garden in Pottstown. There was no sign, but it may be Tricyrtis hirta ‘Variegata’.

Native threadleaf bluestar shines again in October when it turns this gorgeous yellow-orange, here at Chanticleer.

Cimicifuga’s (actaea) soaring, beautifully scented candelabras are dramatic in October, here at the Scott Arboretum.

Tartarian aster takes over when all the other asters except native blue wood aster (see first photo) are done.

Yellow corydalis blooms all season and continues on into November, while the blue flowers of autumn leadwort start in June and peak in September and October.

Mid-October marks the start of the snowdrop and camellia season, two plants that carry me through the depths of winter and into spring. Although the variety broadens considerably in November, I want to show you the snowdrops and camellias that start the show:

The fall-blooming snowdrop species, Galanthus reginae-olgae, sometimes called Queen Olga’s snowdrop because it was named for the Queen of Greece, always blooms by October 15. Shown here with my favorite lamium, ‘Shell Pink’, which flowers all season.

Galanthus reginae-olgae ‘Tilebarn Jamie’ is an improvement on the straight species with bigger, rounded flowers and two flower stems per plant.

I am so thrilled that this spring, I finally found ‘Snow Flurry’ fall-blooming camellia to plant in my garden. It starts the camellia season off with a glorious show in mid-October.

‘Lu Shan Snow’ is my oldest camellia and starts the third week of October.

‘Long Island Pink’ is another early fall-blooming camellia starting in mid-October. I planted it last fall, and it sailed through our terrible winter to produce a large crop of flowers this fall.

Carolyn

Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive notifications of catalogues, sales, and events at the nursery by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.

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Notes: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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Fall 2013 Snowdrops and Camellias

Posted in Camellias, evergreen, Fall, Shade Shrubs, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags Ackerman hybrid camellias, Camellia 'Arctic Snow', Camellia 'Elaine Lee', Camellia 'Winter's Joy', Camellia 'Winter's Snowman, Camellia 'Winter's Star White', Camellia oleifera 'Lu Shan Snow', Camellia sasanqua 'Long Island Pink', Camellia sasanqua 'Nokoriko', camellia Winter's Darling, Carolyn's Shade Gardens, fall-blooming hardy camellias, fall-blooming snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii Hiemalis Group, hardy camellias on December 11, 2013 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Nursery Happenings: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

‘Long Island Pink’ fall-blooming hardy camellia

As my garden begins to quiet down in the second half of fall, two of my favorite plants come into their full glory. One is fall-blooming hardy camellias, and the other is fall-blooming snowdrops. Both are quite rare, at least in the U.S., but both are quite easy to grow and look wonderful together. And the key to my appreciation of them is that late fall, November and December, is their main season. When other plants are succumbing to frost, camellias and snowdrops begin their show with a fresh and pristine look.

This fall-blooming form of the giant snowdrop selected at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens began flowering on November 1 this year and will be offered in the 2014 Snowdrop Catalogue. Technically it is called Galanthus elwesii var. monstictus Hiemalis Group CSG-01, what a mouthful.

Another shot of my fall-blooming snowdrops showing how they are nestled in among evergreen hellebores and Japanese holly ferns to highlight the pure white flowers.

I readily admit that I am a snowdrop addict—a galanthophile. And I can even understand how some gardeners fail to get excited about these little white flowers in the spring. However, in November and December when even the hardy cylcamen are done, snowdrops are so bright and cheerful that the winter doldrums disappear the minute I see them. You can even have flowers beginning in mid-October by planting the earliest blooming species Galanthus reginae-olgae. For more on fall-blooming snowdrops, click here.

Another fall-blooming giant snowdrop selected here at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens for it’s early November bloom time and green-tipped outer segments. It received high praise recently when I posted photos on the Scottish Rock Garden Club Galanthus Forum, even the UK galanthophiles with access to hundreds of cultivars were impressed. Hopefully it will multiply quickly and someday I can offer it for sale.

I am working on the 2014 Snowdrop Catalogue right now and will have it posted on the website before January 1. There are a lot of exciting cultivars available for 2014, but unfortunately they are in very short supply so if you are interested, order early. I have written quite a few blog posts and articles about snowdrops. You can find them all compiled in the post New Feature Article on Snowdrops by clicking here.

‘Winter’s Snowman’ fall-blooming camellia has gorgeous, shiny, dark evergreen leaves.

‘Winter’s Snowman’ produces two types of flowers on the same plant: the anemone-form flowers on the right and the more open semi-double flowers on the left.

Like the snowdrops above, fall-blooming camellias are outstanding in November and December when their large and colorful flowers are shown off to perfection by their shiny evergreen leaves. However, they bring even more to the garden because unlike the ephemeral snowdrops, camellias are shrubs that provide the beauty of their evergreen leaves and lovely habit year round.

‘Nokoriko’ is new to my garden this year, and I love its unusual flower color. Although it is said to be hardy in zone 6, it is a selection from the species Camellia sasanqua, which is not always hardy in our area. Only time will tell.

I have written a lot about fall-blooming camellias and featured photos of dozens of plants that are hardy in zones 6 and 7. All my articles are compiled in the blog post New York Times Photos where I provided a link to my camellia photos that appeared in that newspaper. To see those photos and read more about camellias, click here. If you are looking for information about or photos of a particular hardy camellia cultivar, type the name into the Search My Website area on the sidebar of my home page (if the sidebar is not on the right, click here).

This photo of ‘Arctic Snow’ gives an idea of how many buds each camellia can produce.

‘Arctic Snow’ flower

The one drawback to fall-blooming camellias is that if we have unseasonably cold weather, below 25 degrees F (-3.8 C) or so, any open flowers can be frozen and ruined. This happened this year during the last week of November when the temperature dropped to an official 21 degrees F (-6 C) but was actually 18 degrees in my garden and as low as 12 degrees elsewhere. However, the unopened buds on my plants didn’t freeze, and the flowers continued to open. We are now experiencing another bout of colder than normal weather, and I am not sure the buds will make it through unscathed this time.

‘Long Island Pink’

A close up of ‘Long Island Pink’ and its beautiful leaves.

Usually I visit other gardens to show you camellias. However, this year I am highlighting the cultivars that I grow myself. Enjoy the photos and keep warm during the extra chilly weather we are experiencing.

The oldest camellia in my garden is ‘Lu Shan Snow’, a Camellia oleifera cultivar and the hardy camellia used by Dr. Ackerman at the US National Arboretum to develop many modern hardy camellia cultivars.

‘Lu Shan Snow’

‘Winter’s Joy’ is one of my favorites because it produces so many buds and flowers.

‘Winter’s Joy’

‘Winter’s Star White’

‘Winter’s Darling’

‘Elaine Lee’

Carolyn

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.

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New Snowdrops for 2013

Posted in New Plants, Shade Perennials, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags Carolyn's Shade Gardens, common snowdrop, fall-blooming snowdrops, galanthophile, galanthus, Galanthus 'Hippolyta', Galanthus 'Mighty Atom', Galanthus 'Potter's Prelude', Galanthus 'Scharlockii, Galanthus 'Standing Tall', Galanthus 'Wendy's Gold', Galanthus elwesii, Galanthus nivalis, giant snowdrop, Greatorex double snowdrops, Matt Bishop, snowdrop bulbs, snowdrop catalogue, snowdrop plants, snowdrop provenance, snowdrops, Snowdrops Gunter Waldorf, snowdrops in the green, Snowdrops Matt Bishop, Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus on January 7, 2013 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops to the US only. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are mail order only. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

Some of the snowdrops available from Carolyn’s Shade Gardens in 2013.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

This post includes photographs and colorful descriptions of the 4 new snowdrops I am offering for sale in my 2013 Snowdrop Catalogue. There were three more new cultivars offered, but they sold out within two days of the catalogue being posted on my website. For entertaining descriptions of most of the remaining 13 varieties offered, click here.

The Greatorex double snowdrop ‘Hippolyta’ was new in 2012. For background on the Greatorex doubles, a discussion of snowdrop provenance, and information about ‘Hippolyta’, click here. Photo by Paddy Tobin. We are also offering the early flowering Greatorex double ‘Ophelia’.

In Snowdrops or The Confessions of a Galanthophile, I described my transition from someone who grows snowdrops to someone who is obsessed with them. In Snowdrops: Further Confessions of a Galanthophile, I explained that most snowdrop cultivars can be appreciated as much for their colorful history as for their ornamental characteristics. That history is contained in Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis, and John Grimshaw (Griffin Press 2006), commonly called the “snowdrop bible”.

‘Potter’s Prelude’ is a vigorous and beautiful snowdrop that blooms in the fall. This year it started in mid-November and still has some fresh flowers today (1/6/13). For more information on fall-blooming snowdrops, click here.

Whenever I obtain a new snowdrop or offer one in my catalogue, I always research it thoroughly both for fun and to make sure that what I am offering is the genuine article. The first place that I go is to the “snowdrop bible” to review the detailed description and history of the species or cultivar in question. This year I was also able to consult a new snowdrop book, Snowdrops by Gunter Waldorf (Frances Lincoln Limited 2012). What it lacks in detail, it makes up for with 300 photographs accompanied by short descriptions highlighting the salient characteristics of the snowdrops profiled. It also contains no nonsense advice about growing and collecting snowdrops.

Although the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, pictured above with Italian arum and snow crocus, is the most prevalent snowdrop in gardens, it is by no means common in the ordinary sense of the word. In fact, it is the best choice for gardeners who want to naturalize snowdrops in masses.

After hitting the books, I search the internet and read everything that has been written about the new snowdrop. The available material is mostly the catalogues of all the big UK snowdrop sellers like Avon Bulbs, Harveys Garden Plants, and Monksilver Nursery, among others, but sometimes I come across fun historical or informational articles. I also consult the Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum Galanthus thread where galanthophiles from all over the world meet to obsess. After that, I look at photo galleries of snowdrops, particularly the Galanthus Gallery and the new snowdrop photos on the Dryad Nursery website.

The giant snowdrop, G. elwesii, is also a vigorous spreader. This is the species massed at Winterthur.

Finally, as much as possible, I research the provenance of the snowdrop I am adding to my catalogue or collection. Provenance is the history of a snowdrop’s ownership, documenting the authenticity of the actual bulbs being sold. It is important that snowdrops come from a reputable source and be carefully tracked by subsequent owners. With over 500, and some say 1,000, snowdrop cultivars circulating among collectors, it is easy to make mistakes. For more information on provenance, click here. With that background, on to the new snowdrops.

The very rare yellow snowdrop ‘Wendy’s Gold’.

I am thrilled to offer a yellow snowdrop for the first time, and not just any yellow, but ‘Wendy’s Gold’, the cream of the crop. Not only is this snowdrop much sought after even in England, but it easily refutes the oft made claim that all snowdrops look alike. It was discovered in 1974 by Bill Clark, the Warden of the UK National Trust property Wandlebury Ring near Cambridge. Ten years later, with some prodding, he realized how rare it was and decided to name it after his wife Wendy. All the bulbs except three were then sold to a Dutch bulb company where they subsequently died, Luckily, the remaining bulbs proved robust, and we have ‘Wendy’s Gold’ today.

‘Wendy’s Gold’ is a superb and vigorous snowdrop with a yellow ovary (the “cap” above the petal-like segments) and a large and vivid yellow mark on the inner segments. Its G. plicatus parentage gives it beautiful wide pleated leaves with folded margins, serving as a gorgeous backdrop for the striking flowers.

‘Standing Tall’ is a very impressive snowdrop.

In 1988, regional horticulturist Charles Cresson began evaluating a G. elwesii snowdrop known until this year as 88-1. Over the years of testing it in various conditions in his garden, he discovered that 88-1 is a remarkable snowdrop. Its 12″ height, about as tall as snowdrops get, and very upright habit give it a commanding presence in the garden. However, as it turns out, 88-1 doesn’t have much competition from other snowdrops because it starts blooming right before Christmas and continues through the month of January, a time period when few other snowdrops bloom.

A close up of ‘Standing Tall’s’ flower.

Luckily, I was able to convince Charles that 25 years was long enough to evaluate a snowdrop, and he should introduce this absolutely outstanding new selection. Charles decided to name it ‘Standing Tall’ to reflect its height, very upright habit, and ability to stand up to whatever the season brings, lying down in very cold weather and popping right back up as if nothing had happened. Charles is in the process of registering it with the KAVB, the international registration authority for bulb cultivars in the Netherlands. In the meantime, Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is thrilled to be chosen to introduce it for sale.

The large and elegant flowers of ‘Mighty Atom’.

‘Mighty Atom’ is a beautiful snowdrop with very large, rounded, bright white flowers—the biggest flowers in the catalogue—with a bold, deep green mark on the inner segments. Its habit is short, compact, and even making an exceptional overall presentation. I have admired it for years and urged Charles to offer it, but he was reluctant due to its somewhat confused history.

British snowdrop legend EB Anderson inherited the original ‘Mighty Atom’ from John Gray in 1952 and subsequently named it. However, in later years, Snowdrops states that Anderson distributed a group of distinct but excellent clones, now known as the ‘Mighty Atom’ complex, under this name. Charles’s stock came from plantsman Don Hackenberry who can trace its lineage directly back to EB Anderson, although it is not an offset of what is believed to be Gray’s “original” clone. This member of the ‘Mighty Atom’ complex has proven to be reliable, vigorous, and trouble-free.

‘Scharlockii’ is characterized by the “rabbit ear’s” formed by its spathe (flower covering).

The final member of the four new snowdrops in my 2013 Snowdrop Catalogue is ‘Scharlockii’, a cultivar of the common snowdrop, G. nivalis. It is a charming and distinctive snowdrop with boldly marked green tips on its outer segments but most notable for the rabbit ears (see photo) formed when its spathe splits into two prominently upright, leaf-like halves. It was discovered in 1818 by Herr Julius Scharlock of Grandenz, Germany, and named in 1868. Charles got his stock from Winterthur, known for its amazing snowdrop display, when he worked there in the early 1990s.

Obviously, I find everything about snowdrops fascinating and hope I have communicated some of my infatuation to you. If you are in the U.S. and want to order from the catalogue, just follow the directions for mail order.

Carolyn

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December 2012 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Posted in bulbs for shade, Camellias, hellebores, Shade Gardening, Shade Shrubs, winter, winter interest with tags Arum italicum, Carolyn's Shade Gardens, fall-blooming camellias, fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, fall-blooming hellebores, fall-blooming snowdrops, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, GBBD, Italian arum on December 17, 2012 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

The first of my hybrid hellebores is just about to bloom: Helleborus x ‘Snow White’ (aka ‘Snow Bunting’).

I am two days late for the official Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. On the fifteenth of each month garden bloggers from all over the world post photos of what’s blooming in their gardens, and their posts are collected by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to see which plants are pretty enough to get me outside in December on a somewhat warm but dreary, rainy day. I also wanted to add a new twist by allowing myself only one pass through the garden for photos instead of the numerous trips required by a normal post.

Not surprisingly if you read my blog, Italian arum, hellebores, snowdrops, camellias, hardy cyclamen, and coral bells are hogging the show this time of year accompanied by a few others. Let’s see what we have:

Fall-blooming camellia ‘Winter’s Snowman’ has been blooming since October and still has buds waiting to open.

My late fall garden has been immensely improved by the addition of fall-blooming hardy camellias. All five of mine are blooming now and have plenty of buds left. For more information on fall-bloomimg camellias, click here.

‘Winter’s Joy’

‘Lu Shan Snow’

‘Winter’s Darling’

‘Elaine Lee’

Italian arum is always a highlight this time of year after its fresh foliage emerges from dormancy in early fall:

‘Pictum’ Italian arum

dwarf Italian arum ‘Tiny Tot’

‘Gold Rush’ Italian arum, my favorite

Hellebores are just about to take over as the stars of the garden for the next few months. For more information on hellebores, click here and follow the links at the end of the post. If it wouldn’t violate my parameter for this post, I would run out and photograph bearsfoot hellebore and ‘Praecox’ Christmas rose, which are both almost open. As it is, I have these two hellebores for you:

Another shot of the first flower on ‘Snow White’.

After blooming in October, ‘Josef Lemper’ Christmas rose is at it again and will continue to bloom into spring.

My favorite coral bells or heucheras are the cultivars that give me 365 days of colorful foliage, some of which are pictured below. If I could go back outside, I would add ‘Frosted Violet’ and ‘Bronze Wave’. I would also include some photographs of pulmonarias, especially ‘Diana Clare’:

‘Caramel’ heuchera continues to change from one beautiful hue to the next through out the winter.

‘Green Spice’ is new to my garden this year and looks like a winner.

‘Citronelle’ is a customer favorite for brightening dark corners.

You know I couldn’t resist showing you a few snowdrops:

‘Potter’s Prelude’, a fall-bloomimg snowdrop cultivar, is getting to the end of its bloom period which began in mid-November.

A clump of early blooming giant snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii, hides in the Japanese holly ferns and hellebores.

Except during the heart of the summer when they are dormant, hardy cyclamen are stars in my garden. I find their highly variable leaf patterns endlessly fascinating. For more information on hardy cyclamen, click here.

The last few blooms on fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium, which began blooming at the end of August.

Spring-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. coum, doesn’t need flowers to attract attention.

Here are some more late fall stars that might surprise you:

‘Brigadoon’ St. John’s wort always takes on this lovely peach color for the winter.

This new mahonia called ‘Soft Caress’ was given to me by the breeders at the Southern Living Plant Collection to trial in my garden. It is evergreen, blooms now, and is hardy to zone 7. For more information, click here. I have high hopes for it because I have since seen it in two other local gardens.

This sedum always turns a lovely burgundy in the fall. Unfortunately, I don’t know its exact name.

Bigroot geranium, G. macrorrhizum, takes on red and pink tones for the winter.

‘Black Scallop’ ajuga has quickly become one of my favorite groundcovers because its dark purple leaves remain shiny and beautiful through the winter.

You may be wondering why I would limit myself to one trip outside for photos for this post. Every article that you read here takes me at least a full day to compose, including the photography, the research, the writing, and the editing. I wanted to see if I could cut that back to a few hours and still produce a quality product, and I believe I have been largely successful. It would only work for a post like this though where no significant supporting research was required.

Enjoy, Carolyn

Nursery Happenings: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas. The nursery is closed until spring 2013. Thanks for a great year.

Facebook: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens has a Facebook page where I post single photos, garden tips, and other information that doesn’t fit into a blog post. You can look at my Facebook page here or click the Like button on my right sidebar here.

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Snowdrops or the Confessions of a Galanthophile

Posted in bulbs for shade, Fall Color, Shade Gardening, snowdrops with tags collecting snowdrops, fall-blooming snowdrops, galanthophile, galanthus, Galanthus 'Blewbury Tart', Galanthus 'Magnet', Galanthus 'Potter's Prelude', Galanthus nivalis, Galanthus nivalis 'Viridi-apice', Galanthus reginae-olgae, Matt Bishop, snowdrop bulbs, snowdrop catalogue, snowdrop plants, snowdrops for sale U.S., snowdrops in the green, Snowdrops Matt Bishop, Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus on November 22, 2010 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops, hellebores, and/or hostas. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

Common Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here, and we are currently taking orders.

I have always loved snowdrops. I loved them so much that I set my seasonal clock by them. When they bloomed, it was spring no matter what the calendar said. When we purchased our property in 1983, it came with thousands of common snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis. Many of my original snowdrops are on an open south-facing hill and often start to bloom at the beginning of February. That’s when spring began for me. When they bloomed, I would put on my warmest set of work clothes, head out to the garden, and leave the winter doldrums behind.

Green-tipped Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridi-apice’

That was before I became a galanthophile, a British word describing gardeners obsessed with snowdrops. In my pre-galanthophile days, I thought (and I shudder to put this in writing) that once you had the double ‘Flore Pleno’, and the giant G. elwesii, and the green-tipped ‘Viridi-apice’, and the glossy green-leafed G. woronowii, you pretty much had the snowdrop field covered. The rest all looked the same, didn’t they? What were all those collectors getting so excited about?

But one day, I realized the error of my ways and was seized by the galanthophile obsession to collect every snowdrop cultivar I could get my hands on. Actually, it didn’t really happen in a day—more like years. It started with reading the snowdrop sections in the (old) Heronswood catalogues. Dan Hinkley was a master at plant descriptions, and I ordered a few new cultivars each year. However, my fate as a galanthophile was sealed when I visited the garden of famous regional plantsman Charles Cresson during snowdrop season. Charles can make you see and appreciate the finest distinctions in plants, and he is so generous with his treasures.

Galanthus ‘Blewbury Tart’

Now I had the wild up-facing double ‘Blewbury Tart’, and ‘Magnet’ with the fishing line stem, and the drop-pearl earring shaped ‘Atkinsii’, and the classic ‘S. Arnott’, and the rabbit-eared ‘Sharlockii’, and …. they all looked different to me. I only have 25 varieties though, hardly qualifying me to join the International Galanthophile Society if there is one. Luckily (or unluckily) unusual snowdrops are rarely offered for sale in the U.S. saving me from creating a system to keep track of hundreds of snowdrop cultivars in my garden. The British snowdrop “bible”, Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Matt Bishop, et al., describes 500 cultivars and is sadly out-of-date number-wise.

Galanthus ‘Magnet’

But why am I talking about snowdrops in fall? Because two of the unusual varieties I have been able to collect bloom in fall. This wreaked havoc with my “start of spring” clock, which I had to reset to recognize the wonderful fragrance of sweet box as the beginning of spring. But this inconvenience has been more than outweighed by allowing me to start my snowdrop season in early October with the blooming of Galanthus reginae-olgae.

October blooming Galanthus reginae-olgae, photo Charles Cresson

Galanthus reginae-olgae, a species snowdrop which has no handy common name, starts blooming in my garden in early to mid-October and continues for about four weeks. It looks very much like the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, with a single green spot on its inner petals. Its most significant identifying feature is its bloom time as it is the first species to flower in the garden. It is not particularly robust in my garden, but I love it in October.

November blooming Galanthus ‘Potter’s Prelude’

Just as G. reginae-olgae is winding down, the first blooms of Galanthus elwesii var. monostichus ‘Potter’s Prelude’ are opening in early November. It continues to flower, sometimes into January, when the straight species, G. elwesii, takes over. ‘Potter’s Prelude’ is a free-flowering and vigorous snowdrop in my garden with wide recurving blue-green leaves. It has large blossoms equal in size to the best cultivars of the giant snowdrop, G. elwesii.

November blooming Galanthus ‘Potter’s Prelude’

‘Potter’s Prelude’ was selected by Jack Potter, former curator of the Scott Arboretum, and named and registered by Charles Cresson. Charles has generously allowed me to include ‘Potter’s Prelude’ for sale in my February snowdrop catalogue and given me enough plants to enjoy good-sized clumps in late fall in my own garden.

Carolyn

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November GBBD: Make a Spring Shopping List Now

Posted in Fall, Fall Color, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, How to with tags Arum italicum 'Gold Rush', black fountain grass, Clematis 'Warsaw Nike', Cyclamen hederifolium, Disanthus cercidifolius, fall-blooming camellias, fall-blooming snowdrops, Galanthus 'Potter's Prelude', Geranium 'Rozanne', hardy cyclamen, holly osmanthus, Italian arum, Morris Arboretum, Osmanthus heterophyllus, Pennisetum 'Moudry', Spiraea 'Magic Carpet' on November 15, 2010 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

This Clematis ‘Warsaw Nike’ decided to produce one final flower in mid-November

Now is the time to walk around your garden and assess what you need to add to make late fall a peak time in your landscape. Do you need more trees and shrubs with brilliant fall color? Could your garden benefit from more plants that bloom later in fall? Make a list and take photographs so that when you are shopping next spring you know what you need and where it should go. As an added benefit, you can enjoy each miraculous discovery like the Clematis ‘Warsaw Nike’ pictured above, which I found during my own fall inventory.

If you need ideas, visit local arboretums and gardens. I always find a trip to the Morris Arboretum near Chestnut Hill, PA, highly inspirational and informative. I have added a permanent category to my sidebar for places to visit and get ideas.

Today is Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for November (follow the link to see fall photographs from other garden bloggers). Here are a few more highlights from my mid-November stroll through Carolyn’s Shade Gardens:

Fall-blooming Snowdrops ‘Potter’s Prelude’