Archive for galanthus spindlestone surprise

Terrain Visits Our Snowdrops

Posted in bulbs for shade, garden to visit, my garden, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2019 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Our 2020 Snowdrop Catalogue is on line here, and we are currently taking orders.

The creative team from Terrain put together this beautiful snowdrop collage after their photo shoot at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.  Before reading further, see if you can guess the name of each snowdrop.

Unbeknownst to us, Carolyn’s Shade Gardens has quite a following at Terrain, the home and garden-related arm of URBN, which also owns Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, very near us.  Members of Terrain’s marketing department contacted us recently to find out if they could visit our gardens and photograph snowdrops.  Of course, I am always happy to host anyone who admires snowdrops!

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 cell 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.

 

Terrain has a charming store in the old Styers greenhouses in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.

I asked Terrain’s Brand Writer Megan Parry to describe Terrain for readers who have never experienced it.  Here’s what she said:

Terrain is a garden, home, and outdoor lifestyle brand deeply rooted in nature. Our seven store locations are inspired by the idea of merging house and garden to create an experience for the senses, catering to customers with a curated assortment of plants for all seasons, as well as inspired items for the home and garden. Situated in a luxurious indoor-outdoor environment, our on-site nurseries are flanked by cafes and garden terraces, providing the ideal environment to host events and workshops.

Michael and I have visited Terrain’s Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, location many times.  We love to walk around the beautiful grounds and eat at the delicious Terrain Cafe.  Terrain has a new location in Devon, PA, as well as stores in Maryland, Connecticut, and California.  I have even written a blog post about visiting the Longwood Gardens orchid show and eating at Terrain to cure cabin fever.  To read it, click here.

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The Terrain Cafe not only has delicious food, but it is also housed in a scenic and beautifully decorated greenhouse.

After their visit, the Terrain team composed a blog post about my interest in snowdrops and featuring the collage at the top of the post.  To read their post, click here.  You can discover if you correctly identified the six snowdrops in the collage and find out more information about each variety.  To end this post, I will show you some close ups of the snowdrop varieties selected for the collage.

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Number One is ‘Viridapice’.  ‘Viridapice’ is the banner at the top of my website/blog.

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Number Two is ‘Spindlestone Surprise’.

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Number Three is ‘Ballerina’.

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Number Four is the snowdrop species Galanthus elwesii, also known as the giant snowdrop.  Its shape and markings are variable.  This collage shows some of the many forms it has taken in our garden.

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Number 5 is ‘Blewbury Tart’.

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Number Six is ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’.

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Thank you to Cat, Adelyn, Laura, and Megan from Terrain for making this such a fun experience for us.  You mentioned coming back later in the season, and you are most welcome!

Carolyn

Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name, location, and cell number (for back up contact use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com.  Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.  Please indicate if you will be shopping at the nursery or are mail order only.

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.

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.

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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Snowdrops in Snow Caves

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, Uncategorized, winter, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , on February 2, 2016 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Galanthus 'Spindlestone Surprise'

‘Spindlestone Surprise’, a rare yellow snowdrop peaks out from its cave.

In my last post, I talked about our unseasonably warm weather, and we are back to that today.  But in between we had the blizzard of 2016, which dumped 30″ (76.2 cm) of snow on Carolyn’s Shade Gardens accompanied by high winds.  Even with several days of 50 degree F (10 C) weather, the ground is covered and piles of drifted snow are everywhere not to mention the sticks and debris.

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.

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Galanthus 'Godfrey Owen' elwesii

‘Godfrey Owen’ looks gorgeous in the snow.

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Luckily, I covered many of my blooming clumps with plastic boxes before the snow began.  The uncovered flowering plants were damaged by the snow, but the covered groups look pristine.    When I pulled off the boxes, the snowdrops underneath were left in a roofless snow cave.  They looked so beautiful, I wanted to share them with you.

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Galanthus 'Godfrey Owen' elwesii

I can’t get enough of ‘Godfrey Owen’.

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Galanthus 'Daphne's Scissors' elwesii

‘Daphne’s Scissors’ with uncharacteristic green tips this year.

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Galanthus 'Wendy's Gold' plicatus

Another beautiful yellow, ‘Wendy’s Gold’.

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Gaalnthus 'Magnet'

‘Magnet’ has been blooming for so long it is starting to go by.

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Galanthus 'Richard Ayres'

A vigorous double, ‘Richard Ayres’ .

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Galanthus 'Kite' elwesii

‘Kite’ today, eleven days after the storm, with the snow melted down quite a bit.

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Galanthus 'Kite' elwesii

‘Kite’ with very long outer segments and an X-shaped inner mark.

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Galanthus 'Trumps'

‘Trumps’, one of the most sought after snowdrops.

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Galanthus 'Spindlestone Surprise'

I couldn’t resist another shot of ‘Spindlestone Surprise’.

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It seems fitting that the beauty of snowdrops is increased by snow.

Carolyn

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Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.  Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.

Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.

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.

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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Do All Snowdrops Look Alike?

Posted in bulbs for shade, Shade Perennials, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2014 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Galanthus 'Wasp'‘Wasp’ certainly has all the elements of a typical snowdrop, but its long petals and unusual markings make it look just like the flying insect when the wind blows.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

People often try to tell me that all snowdrops look alike: white with three longer outer petals and three shorter inner petals with a green mark.  They should know better.  I would never admit that as I am a galanthophile who revels in observing the smallest differences.  I can go on at length about bloom time, leaf color and shape, and the intricacies of the inner mark, but I won’t.  Here I want to show you snowdrops that even the skeptical will recognize as different.

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.

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Galanthus 'Ballerina'The elegant and graceful double snowdrop ‘Ballerina’ certainly stands out from the pack.

Most gardeners are all about the flowers, and it is the blooms that I will focus on here.  The flower variations just within the three inner segments (petals)-three outer segments-single green inner mark theme are amazing, and I will show you a few of those like ‘Wasp’ above.  But then there are yellow snowdrops, regular doubles like ‘Ballerina’ above, virescent (green) snowdrops, crazy doubles, flowers with extra petals, all white snowdrops, the variety is endless.  There is even ‘The Alburgh Claw’.  Let’s start the show.

Galanthus 'Melanie Broughton'Although still single-flowered and green and white, ‘Melanie Broughton’ has a very large solid green inner mark and bright white, puffy and quilted outer segments.

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Galanthus elwesii 'Daphne's Scissors'‘Daphne’s Scissors’ has a very unusual inner mark shaped like scissors.  Thanks to Mark Smyth at the Galanthus Gallery for supplying this excellent photo.

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Galanthus 'Viridapice'‘Viridapice’ has green markings on the outside of the flower.

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Galanthus 'Diggory' ‘Diggory’ is the only snowdrop flower with pear-shaped, squared off outer segments.

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Galanthus 'Rosemary Burnham'‘Rosemary Burnham’ is a virescent snowdrop with a solid green inner mark and elegant green stripes completely covering the outer segments.

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Galanthus 'Spindlestone Surprise'‘Spindlestone Surprise’ is one of a growing number of snowdrops that have a yellow mark and a yellow ovary (the cap on top of the flower).  Others include ‘Wendy’s Gold’ and ‘Primrose Warburg’.

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Galanthus nivalis 'Blonde Inge'‘Blonde Inge’ is one of the few galanthus that combine a yellow mark with a green ovary.

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Galanthus nivalis 'Lady Elphinstone' Cadwalader‘Lady Elphinstone’ is the only double yellow.

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Galanthus elewesii 'Godfrey Owen'‘Godfrey Owen’ doubles the number of inner and outer petals to six each and holds its flowers open in a beautiful whorl.

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Galanthus 'Hill Poe'‘Hill Poe’ is a late blooming double with lots of white inside.

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Galanthus nivalis 'Blewbury Tart'‘Blewbury Tart’ is a vigorous double snowdrop with outward-facing, mostly green flowers.

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Galanthus nivalis 'Anglesey Abbey'‘Anglesey Abbey’ can be solid white and poculiform, meaning that its inner segments are replaced by outer segments.

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Galanthus 'Walrus' Cadwalader‘Walrus’ has mostly green inner segments and long green outer “tusks”.

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And you were wondering about ‘The Alburgh Claw’, well click here for a photo of one of the weirdest snowdrop forms, the spikey double.

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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