Featured Plants - Snowdrops "Galanthus" Always my favourite group of plants. I start getting the snowdrop twitch in the middle of September, looking for the first ‘noses’ of the autumn flowering Galanthus reginae-olgae. By the middle of October they are in full bloom. The garden then has many more varieties in flower from November right through until April. There is no doubt the genus has attained cult status in the UK, some of you will already be dedicated galanthophiles, while others will wonder what on Earth the fuss is about. I Beginners or want to learn more about Snowdrops? If you are a beginner and want to learn more, or you can visit me at Easton Walled Gardens during their snowdrop week where I will have a display and do two short snowdrop talks every day. Details of the opening times for 2012 and travel directions are at www.eastonwalledgardens.co.uk I am doing some one day snowdrop workshops at Cambridge Botanic Garden in February 2012 To find out more about dates and booking, click on this link to their website Cambridge Botanic Garden. Beginners guide You will find my little book very useful as it will tell you more about varieties, growing and the history of this plant group. More details about the second edition are on our PM iMAGES website, so to find out more click on "Snowdrop Books" Where to grow Snowdrops Increasingly I find that all Galanthus grow best in open sunny conditions rather than the shade with which they are traditionally associated. So now my new bulbs and any which have a reputation for being difficult go into sunny spaces on a south facing slope. Snowdrop bulbs for sale I have got some spares of the bulbs listed below. These can be lifted to order and posted when the weather permits, or could by arrangement be collected from Easton Walled Gardens during snowdrop week. The number in brackets indicates the number of bulbs that I have to spare. Email to check up to date status and to reserve bulbs that you would like to buy. As the season gets going I will probably have other varieties to spare as well, but as I write this in the depths of what appears to be the start of the next ice age, it is hard to predict. Magnet (4) | A lovely elegant single flower that hangs on a long arching pedicel. £4/bulb | 
| Jacquenetta (4) | One of the beautiful Greatorex doubles. It has quite a lot of green on the outer petals and a full ruff of marked inners £7/bulb | 
| Mrs McNamara (3) | A tall good looking plant that is always one of the first to bloom and sometimes it has bloomed before Christmas, but it has sensibly waited this year. £15/bulb | 
| Comet (4) | A large robust plant with large single flowers. The outer petals are green tipped. I do not think it is my imagination but I think that the amount of green seems to vary from year to year. £10/bulb | 
| Marjorie Brown (5) | This is a large G.elwesii, with particularly blue leaves. However, its main claim to a position in any collection is its habit of flowering towards the end of the snowdrop season, rather than at the beginning like most G.elwesii. £15/bulb | PICTURE TO FOLLOW | Robin Hood (10) | A very upright snowdrop with long pointed flowers. The inner petals have a distinctive X shaped mark. £7/bulb | 
| Atkinsii & Atkinsii Moccas Form (6) | An elegant flowered plant, that is a ‘good dooer’. Sometimes condemned because of its tendency to produce an odd aberrant inner petal. The variety Moccas form does not do this. Atkinsii £3/bulb, Moccas form £4/bulb | 
| Washfield Colesbourne (3) | A beautiful snowdrop, the inner petals of this single flowered plant are completely green. £15/bulb | 
| Bowles Large (5) | The snowdrop bible seems very dismissive of what to me is a nice big plicatus that does well. I got the original from Cliff Curtis. Does it date back to EAB, who knows but it’s a nice plant. £10/bulb | 
| Mrs Wrightson’s Double (4) | Quite a tight fat double flower, sometimes regular, sometimes more untidy. £10/bulb | PICTURE TO FOLLOW |
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