Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.
There couldn’t be more different looking snowdrops than ‘Wasp’ in the foreground above and ‘Diggory’ in the background.
This post includes additional photographs and more detailed descriptions of four of the new snowdrops I am offering for sale in my 2015 Snowdrop Catalogue. The catalogue will be emailed to all my customers in early January, but you can view it now by clicking here. There are four more new snowdrop cultivars offered in the catalogue plus two snowflakes (leucojums), but they are either sold or about to sell out so I decided not to include them. I recommend ordering right away to secure the snowdrops you want. For entertaining descriptions of many of the remaining varieties offered, click here.
Most of the information about the snowdrops profiled below comes from the indispensable Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis, and John Grimshaw (2006 Griffin Press)( called Snowdrops below).
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 plicatus ‘Diggory’
There is no other snowdrop that looks like ‘Diggory’ so if you think all snowdrops look alike this is the one for you. The squared-off pear-shaped flowers with seersucker outers and the large green inner mark visible even when the flower is closed, make ‘Diggory’ recognizable anywhere. The blooms resemble miniature hot air balloons hanging on tiny shepherd’s crooks, absolutely charming. The unique look is further enhanced by the pleated leaves visible in the photo below and characteristic of a Crimean snowdrop, G. plicatus.
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‘Diggory’s’ leaves with their elegant side pleats are also very attractive.
‘Diggory’ is a relatively new snowdrop. It was found in a naturalized stand of G. plicatus in 1993 by two well known British galanthophiles and first exhibited in 1998 when it received a commendation. The name was chosen to memorialize the son of one of the discoverers. When Avon Bulbs in England asked its customers to name their favorite snowdrops, ‘Diggory’ ranked number 4 out of the 1,000 or more snowdrops in cultivation.
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‘Blonde Inge’ is a very desirable yellow-marked snowdrop.
‘Blonde Inge’ is unusual because the lovely yellow markings on its inner segments are combined with a green ovary (the little cap above the flower). It is a cultivar of the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, and as such tolerates a wide variety of garden conditions. It builds up quickly and is very striking in a clump as you can see in the photo below.
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‘Blonde Inge’ grows rapidly to form an impressive clump.
‘Blonde Inge’ was discovered in 1977 in a cemetery near Cologne, Germany, and introduced by Nicholas Top to the UK in 1993. The name came from the lyrics of a German foxtrot, which you can hear by clicking here.
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‘Wasp’ has long, elegant outer segments.
Matt Bishop calls ‘Wasp’ an aptly named snowdrop, and I have to agree. The very long and narrow outer segments stick out at an angle like wings and the tubular inner segments are striped to resemble a thorax. ‘Wasp’ flies around on its long pedicel in the slightest breeze completing the insect-like effect. This charming and unique snowdrop caused a sensation among UK galanthophiles when it was first introduced in the late 1990s. It was discovered in 1995 by British snowdrop enthusiast Veronica Cross at Sutton Court.
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‘Walrus’ is a very uniform double snowdrop considering how unusual it looks.
Snowdrops calls ‘Walrus’ “one of the greatest eccentrics of the snowdrop world”, but despite this it is not wild looking like ‘Blewbury Tart’ but instead a very regularly formed double. As you can see in the photo above, its ‘tusks’ are the three very long, linear, mostly green outer segments. They surround a lovely rosette whose segments curve outward to look like a green rose.
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Maybe my expanding clump of ‘Walrus’ will one day look like this photo taken by Alan Street of Avon Bulbs.
‘Walrus’ is a cultivar of the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, and tolerates a wide variety of conditions. It is vigorous and multiplies well in the garden. It was selected in the 1960s by noted galanthophile Oliver Wyatt at Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire, England. ‘Walrus’ ranked number 12 on the list of favorite snowdrops of UK gardeners.
Carolyn
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‘Rosemary Burnham’ is a virescent snowdrop with a solid green inner mark and elegant green stripes completely covering the outer segments.
CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 