Yesterday I received a shipment of snowdrops in the green. I know snowdrops
need to be planted immediately and not allowed to dry out.

The area where I want to plant the snowdrops already has spring bulbs which
are either in bloom or soon will be, so I can't plant the snowdrops there
without disturbing these other spring bulbs.

My question is, can I plant the snowdrops into containers for a month or
two, and then replant them into their permanent place in the border?

Thanks.

"Jack" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I received a shipment of snowdrops in the green. I know
snowdrops
need to be planted immediately and not allowed to dry out.

The area where I want to plant the snowdrops already has spring
bulbs which
are either in bloom or soon will be, so I can't plant the snowdrops
there
without disturbing these other spring bulbs.

My question is, can I plant the snowdrops into containers for a
month or
two, and then replant them into their permanent place in the border?

Thanks.

Yes "~)
Jenny

The message
from "JennyC" contains these words:


"Jack" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I received a shipment of snowdrops in the green. I know
snowdrops
need to be planted immediately and not allowed to dry out.

The area where I want to plant the snowdrops already has spring
bulbs which
are either in bloom or soon will be, so I can't plant the snowdrops
there
without disturbing these other spring bulbs.

My question is, can I plant the snowdrops into containers for a
month or
two, and then replant them into their permanent place in the border?

Thanks.

Yes "~)
Jenny

Sorry, don't agree. By the time you plant out the snowdrops they
will have lost their foliage so you negate the whole point of buying
them in the green, which is that snowdrops with full leaves and roots
take well to transplanting; bare snowdrop bulbs often have a much lower
success rate.

I would plant them now, dividing them into small clumps of 3 or 4
bulbs, and plant them using a large knife to make the smallest possible
planting slit in spaces between your other bulbs. Slide the snowdrops in
and press the slit closed with your hand. It's a method I've used
successfully to plant thousands of snowdrops.

Janet.

In article , Jack
writes
Thanks for the reply, Janet. What if I plant the snowdrops into pots and
leave them there until after next year's flowering?

One year I dug up lots of them, after flowering, and put them in pots
with lots of soil because my mother wanted some (snowdrops, that is).
These were then put in my mother's garden in summer ie I just dug a hole
the size of a pot, removed the pot and popped the whole lot in the
hole. The snowdrops flowered perfectly well the following winter.
You go ahead and put them in pots - even plant them later this year (but
don't disturb the root system that has formed in the pot) and you'll be
ok.
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

Thanks, Jane. That's what I'll do.

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.

Regards


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
...
In article , Jack
writes
Thanks for the reply, Janet. What if I plant the snowdrops into pots and
leave them there until after next year's flowering?

One year I dug up lots of them, after flowering, and put them in pots
with lots of soil because my mother wanted some (snowdrops, that is).
These were then put in my mother's garden in summer ie I just dug a hole
the size of a pot, removed the pot and popped the whole lot in the
hole. The snowdrops flowered perfectly well the following winter.
You go ahead and put them in pots - even plant them later this year (but
don't disturb the root system that has formed in the pot) and you'll be
ok.
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

In article , Jack
writes
Thanks, Jane. That's what I'll do.

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.

They certainly will - they are a nuisance too!!
ie you must not mow them until the leaves have died right back.
Sometimes this takes until June (daffs sometimes until July). Then the
patch of lawn looks a mess for ages (
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

In article , Jack
writes
Thanks, Jane. That's what I'll do.

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.

I read in a Hessayon book at the weekend that snowdrops will compete
successfully with the fine grasses in a woodland setting but not with
the vigorous grasses of a lawn.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/garden/

In article , Kay Easton
writes

I read in a Hessayon book at the weekend that snowdrops will compete
successfully with the fine grasses in a woodland setting but not with
the vigorous grasses of a lawn.

Well, we have them in the lawn, but then maybe they survive because the
lawn is not a top notch one!!
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:30:39 +0000, Jane Ransom wrote:

They certainly will - they are a nuisance too!!
ie you must not mow them until the leaves have died right back.

Well (re)plant them so they are in random clumps a mower or strimmers
width apart. Then you can get the mower/strimmer between them too keep
the grass down and leave the leaves to feed the bulbs.

This is what we have on the front bit of grass, seems to work quite
well and the odd small "accident" with the strimmer doesn't seem to
unduly worry them.

--
Cheers
Dave. Remove "spam" for valid email.

On Sun, 16 Mar 2003 22:38:50 GMT, Janet Baraclough wrote:

...By the time you plant out the snowdrops they
will have lost their foliage so you negate the whole point of buying
them in the green, which is that snowdrops with full leaves and roots
take well to transplanting; bare snowdrop bulbs often have a much lower
success rate.

The thing snowdrops don't like is the ----long---- drying out the
usual bulb trade processes subject them to. Potting them up now
and planting them out directly from the pot into the garden later
on in the season avoids harmful desiccation as well as planting
in the green.

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

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. Close
observation of the survivors leads me to think that L.v. bulbs
should first be rehydrated by soaking in water after reception
(they usually in a flabby when you get them), and then planted
quite deep. The bulbs, though small, have quite long necks. I
suspect that overly-shallow planting is one of the causes of my
many failures.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

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.

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.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

In article ,
says...
In article , Kay Easton
writes

I read in a Hessayon book at the weekend that snowdrops will compete
successfully with the fine grasses in a woodland setting but not with
the vigorous grasses of a lawn.

Well, we have them in the lawn, but then maybe they survive because the
lawn is not a top notch one!!

A lot of our lawn was new last year since it got trashed by the heavy
duty log shifting, greenhouse building and shed base laying. I dressed,
worked in some manure and reseeded it. By the time we came to planting
the snowdrops there was a fairly good turf growing vigorously. We
bought, not even in the green, but cheap dried out little bulbs from
Woolworths on the grounds that we would certainly be buying more in the
green (3 weeks ago), that there was a small chance we'd have a few come
up to let us know spring was coming. As it turns out, after I binned 20%
of the bulbs as looking rotten and dusty, we got about 80% of the rest
up in the lawn.

Warwick

My snowdrops have done quite well on my lawn. Is this a good time to
dig them up and separate the clumps?

Lazarus

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 12:32:21 +0000, Kay Easton
wrotc:

I read in a Hessayon book at the weekend that snowdrops will compete
successfully with the fine grasses in a woodland setting but not with
the vigorous grasses of a lawn.

The best show of snowdrops I have seen was under a deciduous tree -
in clumps amid a carpet of aconites (Eranthis). The eranthis was one
of the paler gold species and the effect was "a picture" on a frosty
spring morning.

I should add that the show was not right up by the bole of the tree
but in a halo around the drip circle.

Hussein
Grow a little garden

(Rodger Whitlock) wrote in
:

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.

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.

Oodles of example of all sorts of daffs, crocuses and snowdrops planted
very successfully under grass round here, and thriving year on year.

Best example I've seen recently: an old churchyard in Dulverton,
Somerset, with oak trees dotted about, and longish grass absolutely
glowing purple with crocuses - not just clumps, but a vast lawn of them.

A fabulous sight, and I presume largely down to natural spread because
buying and planting that many bulbs would be beyond the resources of
most churches - and they were all the same variety, too.

I have a snowdrop bank which is heavily shaded by holly and hazel trees
and north-facing to boot. I wouldn't have planted snowdrops there
myself - I'd have thought it was too shady. They have found their own
way there from next door (and I am very happy about that!)

I'm sure there are bulbs that prefer not to be overplanted, but I am
confident the common tough types positively thrive on it - here at
least.

Victoria
--
South East Cornwall