The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 10:23:52 -0000, Jack wrote:

One more question - will snowdrops grow through a lawn? I planted some
anemone blanda in my lawn and none of them have come up, so I'm
wondering if
snowdrops will struggle to get through the grass too.

Snowdrops will do fine. AB can be a bit miffy; I've never managed to
get them to flower even in their first season, (in acid soil and a high
rainfall area).

Although lots of gardening books yap about overplanting bulbs, I
was advised by a very experienced bulb grower that by and large
bulbs do not like overplanting. The over-plant competes with the
bulbs, and by shading the soil prevents proper warm summer
dormancy.

Grass probably qualifies as an overplanting, except in the case
of some of the larger, more strongly growing daffodils.

Counterexample: Crocus vernus naturalized in a local park's
lawns.

That advice must be a result of your slightly different climate in
summer. In the UK many underplanted, shaded bulbs do very well;
bluebell, snowdrop and wild daffodil woods would be a prime example. All
those bulbs do just as well in open rough grassland/grazing, wherever
the soil is not very dry in summer...and self seed there. Snakeshead
fritillaries grow in dampish grazing meadows too.

Municipal mown-grass road verges, parks and green spaces all over the
UK are a glory of densely planted crocus and narcissi atm, thriving on
no supplementary feeding and usually, only a few weeks of post-flowering
leaf growth before mowing begins.The bulbs multiply from year to year
but seldom get chance to spread by seeding, because of the early mowing.

Isn't camassia native to you? They do extremely well here, planted
under rough grass, and even self-seed into it.

Janet.

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:


But I'm curious if anyone knows for sure if snowdrop roots are
perennial or annual?

Annual, but it's a very long season (like narcissi, which start making
their new roots by midsummer). In our last garden we had many thousands
of each naturalised, so inevitably some got dug up in summer by dogs,
moles, or me :-o

The spring snowflake, /Leucojum vernum/, a very close relative to
the snowdrop, is much worse about being dried out. I've planted
roughly two hundred bulbs of it over the last fifteen years but
only a very few have survived and established themselves.

In the same garden, I planted 50 Lv in 1988; only about 10 of them
survived. They flowered but didn't seem to increase so never made a show
worth having. The ones that lived, were planted in a *very* soggy bit of
a wooded area. I think you are right, they are very sensitive to dry
conditions.

Janet.

In article ,
Janet Baraclough writes:
|
| One more question - will snowdrops grow through a lawn? I planted some
| anemone blanda in my lawn and none of them have come up, so I'm
| wondering if
| snowdrops will struggle to get through the grass too.
|
| Snowdrops will do fine. AB can be a bit miffy; I've never managed to
| get them to flower even in their first season, (in acid soil and a high
| rainfall area).

They do fine here. Nearly neutral soil and not so wet :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email:
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679

On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 12:37:31 GMT, Janet Baraclough wrote:

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

Snowdrops will do fine. AB [Anemone blanda] can be a bit
miffy; I've never managed to get them to flower even in their
first season, (in acid soil and a high rainfall area).

Try putting some lime -- ground limestone, chalk, etc -- on them.
I have the impression that these Greek plants are calciophiles

Although lots of gardening books yap about overplanting bulbs, I
was advised by a very experienced bulb grower that by and large
bulbs do not like overplanting. The over-plant competes with the
bulbs, and by shading the soil prevents proper warm summer
dormancy.

Grass probably qualifies as an overplanting, except in the case
of some of the larger, more strongly growing daffodils.

Counterexample: Crocus vernus naturalized in a local park's
lawns.

That advice must be a result of your slightly different climate in
summer. In the UK many underplanted, shaded bulbs do very well;
bluebell, snowdrop and wild daffodil woods would be a prime example. All
those bulbs do just as well in open rough grassland/grazing, wherever
the soil is not very dry in summer...and self seed there. Snakeshead
fritillaries grow in dampish grazing meadows too.

I have a long (300') lane as the approach to my property. It is
quite shaded, with vigorous trees, shrubs, etc -- wild
uncultivated stuff. And yes, snowdrops do well there, along with
stray narcissus. I think I may have misstated something here.
Oops.

Isn't camassia native to you? They do extremely well here, planted
under rough grass, and even self-seed into it.

Oh, *those* weedy pests! Two species are locally native, Camassia
quamash and Camassia leichtlinii ssp suksdorfii. I don't consider
them garden worthy because every seed germinates and the bulbs
take themselves to quite a depth! They're not as bad as, say,
Nothoscordum inodorum, but only because they don't multiply
vegetatively.

I once grew from seed C. leichtlinii ssp leichtlinii (the creamy
form from Oregon -- ssp. suksdorfii is deep blue-violet) and have
been trying to get rid of it ever since. I think it's a lost
cause.

Far better to get one of the seed-sterile Dutch clones. I have
one that is very good, with the great advantage of not seeding
about -- possibly "Blue Danube" but I'm not certain. My defective
memory says it was named after some European royal female, but
the Plantfinder shows no likely candidate under such a name.

At one time I went out and searched for white-flowered specimens
of camas, and brought a number of them (and some pale blues) into
the garden. I now have an ineradicable patch in one corner. I
suspect there are plum-coloured and pink forms in the wild, but
haven't actually found one.

Camas bulbs are edible. Steam them. They look and taste like
old-fashioned library paste when cooked.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in
message ...


Camas bulbs are edible. Steam them. They look and taste like
old-fashioned library paste when cooked.

LOL Yummmmmmm

Ophelia
Scotland

I've had my garden for about six years and never had nor planted
snowdrops in the back garden - we have a small clump in the front garden
under a shrub. This year we discovered a small clump of flowering
snowdrops in the back garden - would these have started from seed,
perhaps carried by birds?
--
Joe Farrugia, London

In message , Joe
was banging on about

I've had my garden for about six years and never had nor planted
snowdrops in the back garden - we have a small clump in the front
garden under a shrub. This year we discovered a small clump of
flowering snowdrops in the back garden

The swallow may fly south with the sun,
or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter
yet these are not strangers to our lands.

--
R. McGeddon
"But I can't think for you - You'll have to decide,
Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side."
[Bob Dylan 1963]

Joe writes:

I've had my garden for about six years and never had nor planted
snowdrops in the back garden - we have a small clump in the front
garden under a shrub. This year we discovered a small clump of
flowering snowdrops in the back garden - would these have started from
seed, perhaps carried by birds?

Perhaps a squirrel did it.

--
Joe Farrugia, London

Alan

--
Alan Williams, Room IT301, Department of Computer Science,
University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, U.K.
Tel: +44 161 275 6270 Fax: +44 161 275 6280