CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS

Seeing the emerging green tips appearing in almost every snowdrop location in our garden never gets old.  The anticipation and promise that those tips represent propel me happily through fall garden chores.  In addition, ‘Standing Tall’ celebrated the emerging season by coming into bloom three weeks early on November 17.

This is part two of a two-part post on the new snowdrops plus a leucojum and an eranthis that will be offered in our 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue.  To read part one, click here.  The catalogue will be posted on our website on December 1, 2024, and details will be sent to our snowdrop customer list shortly.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at four more special, new snowdrops and an eranthis/winter aconite that will be available for order in December.  Enjoy!

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.

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When ‘Richard Bish’s’ flowers are closed you can clearly see the green stripes on the outer petals.

Eranthis hyemalis ‘Richard Bish’ is a very rare, winter aconite cultivar.  It has beautiful double-flowers with elegant rounded petals (technically sepals) as you can see from the photo at the beginning of this post.  The inner petals are a warm bright yellow while the outer row has intriguing green stripes (see photo directly above).  I received seeds from bulb expert Charles Cresson in 2018 and finally have a few to sell.  ‘Richard Bish’ was found by Karl Kristensen in the English garden of Richard Bish and named in his honor.

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‘Dodo Norton has one of the largest snowdrop flowers.

‘Dodo Norton’ has huge, thickly textured flowers on long pedicels (the stem attaching the flower to the scape) but short scapes—it looks like a very dwarf ‘Mighty Atom.  The cupped outer segments are puckered to produce a seersucker effect, and the inners are boldly marked.  It was found in the famous ditch in the former garden of well known horticulturist Margery Fish at East Lambrook Manor and named in 2000 for a previous owner of the property.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 31 of Some Snowdrops.

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‘Kildare’, a virescent or green-shaded snowdrop, is one of the most elegant flowers in my garden (photos taken 3/6/22 at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens).

‘Kildare’ is an unmistakable snowdrop with long, tapering and pointed outer segments marked with lovely pale green lines extending halfway to the base (top of the flower).  The inner segments are almost entirely bright green fading toward the base.  It is usually one of the last snowdrops to bloom in my garden.

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‘Kildare’ has gorgeous markings.

‘Kildare is a hybrid cross discovered by the famous snowdrop hunters Ruby and David Baker in 1995 when they got lost in County Kildare on a snowdrop tour of Ireland.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 63 of Some Snowdrops.

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‘Bitter Lemons’ joins an august group of rare inverse poculiform yellow snowdrops (photo from RB Snowdrops and used with the permission of Richard Bashford).

‘Bitter Lemons’ is one of the few yellow snowdrops, along with ‘Midas’ and ‘Golden Fleece’, that has yellow markings on both the inner and outer segments.  It is a so-called ‘color change’ snowdrop like ‘Blonde Inge’, opening a lemony lime and aging to lemony yellow.  It blooms one month before ‘Midas’.  International snowdrop expert Alan Street discovered ‘Bitter Lemons’ in the famous copse at Avon Bulbs and introduced it in 2019.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 21 of Some Snowdrops. 

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‘White Swan displays its elegant double flowers against the bright blue winter sky at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.

‘White Swan’ is a large and elegant double snowdrop originated prior to 1954 by English plantsman Heyrick Greatorex who crossed Galanthus plicatus, with the double common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’.  It is the rarest of the resulting doubles with the largest flowers on very tall stems.  It increases vigorously in my garden, especially with regular division.

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We were very impressed by the large stand of ‘White Swan’ at Thenford Arboretum in England where the wonderful Emma Thick gave us a private tour.  You can see its bold mark and neat and regular flower.

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Carolyn

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