Archive for Galanthus reginae-olgae

New Snowdrops for 2023: Part One

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2022 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Galanthus June Boardman‘June Boardman’ combines a bright yellow ovary with an inner mark that is lime green at the apex and pale yellow near the base.  Photo from Anne Repnow author of Some Snowdrops: A Photographic Ramble.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

We are on a roller coaster ride as far as the weather goes with last week in the 70s, and this week very cold with Sunday night dipping to 21 degrees with a daytime high of 35.  Having been a farmer for 30 years, I should be used to this, but I always worry about my little snowdrops trying to form their roots. The fall-bloomers remain undaunted though: G. reginae-olgae is almost finished, ‘Barnes’ is in full, glorious bloom, and ‘Potter’s Prelude is opening flowers.  I can see the tips of many more pushing through.

As usual, the 2023 Snowdrop Catalogue will be posted on our website in the first half of December.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at some of the special, new snowdrops that will be available in the catalogue.  Enjoy!

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 within the US.  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 interested in snowdrops.  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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While there are many yellow cultivars of G. plicatus, ‘June Boardman’ (photo at the top) is a rare G. plicatus hybrid.  Several sources say it is a seedling of ‘Atkinsii’, and it certainly has the elegant, long, slender flowers and graceful habit that make ‘Atkinsii’ unique.  Also unusual, and I think quite beautiful, is the bright yellow ovary combined with a lime green inner mark paling to a lovely yellow at the base.  The pedicel and spathe are tinged yellow, and the habit is very upright. 

‘June Boardman’ is one of several plicatus seedlings found by distinguished horticulturist Bill Boardman in his Bergh Apton garden ‘Garden in an Orchard’ and is named for his wife (Bergh Apton Newsletter, Issue No. 137, Feb-March 2015).

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Galanthus reginae-olgae, Lamium 'Shell Pink'We haven’t offered Galanthus reginae-olgae in 11 years so I am considering it new for the purposes of this post.

The hard-to-find species G. reginae-olgae subsp. reginae-olgae is the earliest to bloom of all the snowdrops in most gardens—in my garden it flowers in  early to mid-October—providing a very welcome extension of the snowdrop season into early fall.  Its flowers are similar to the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, with a single green mark on the inner segment, but its upright habit gives it a very distinct look. 

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Galanthus reginae-olgae Cresson photoGalanthus reginae-olgae in Charles Cresson’s Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, garden.

G.  reginae-olgae was named in 1876 in honor of Queen Olga of Greece, the grandmother of Prince Philip.  It was originally collected in Greece and grows throughout the Balkans and Italy, making it more tolerant of hotter and drier weather than other snowdrops.  However, it can be finicky so I am pleased to offer plants from Charles Cresson, who got his stock from a local Delaware Valley garden where it had flourished for many years unlike other forms of this species.  It is one of 28 snowdrops that has received the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

For more information on G. reginae-olgae and other early-blooming snowdrops, click here.

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Galanthus 'Rodmarton' ‘Rodmarton’ originated at Rodmarton Manor in Gloucestershire, one of my favorite snowdrop venues.

‘Rodmarton’ has eye-catching, very large and full double flowers on vigorous, and easy-to-grow plants.  The outer segments have faint green lines at the tip, while the inners are boldly marked in deep emerald green.  It is one of the tallest double hybrids to result from a cross between G. plicatus and G. nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’ and one of the earliest to flower.  It was selected in the mid 1970s by Mary Biddulph in her garden Rodmarton Manor in the village of Rodmaton, Gloucestershire, the home of many fine snowdrops.

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Galanthus Scissors-001‘Scissors’ in Charles Cresson’s garden

G. plicatus cultivars are a favorite of mine as they usually have substantial flowers on big plants with beautiful leaves so I am always happy to add another like ‘Scissors’ to my garden.  The snowdrop bible calls ‘Scissors’ “a fine G. plicatus seedling … [with] long, shapely outer segments … [and a] very apt name” (Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis, and John Grimshaw (Timber Press 2006, page 157).  The name fits because the green inner mark resembles a pair of old-fashioned scissors, clearly visible due to the long claws (where the outer segment attaches to the ovary).  It was selected in 1988 by Reverend Richard Blakeway-Phillips (1919-2012), an avid snowdrop collector and exhibitor.

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Galanthus 'Walker Canada'‘Walker Canada’ in the Avon Bulbs display at the 2017 Royal Horticultural Society Show at Vincent Square.

I have long been intrigued by this snowdrop as, when I travel to England during snowdrop season, I invariably get asked if I am Canadian and any relationship to ‘Walker Canada’.   However, it was love at first sight when I finally saw it at the 2017 RHS Show.  It is a gorgeous, substantial, beautifully proportioned, large-flowered snowdrop with the elegant folded leaves characteristic of G. plicatus. 

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Galanthus 'Walker Canada'G. plicatus ‘Walker Canada’

‘Walker Canada’s’ origins are a mystery.  When snowdrop legend Richard Nutt died in 2002, it was found in a cold frame in his garden at Great Barfield near a faded and barely legible label saying “Walker Canada,” and that’s all we know about it!

Look for another post soon profiling more new snowdrops.

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Carolyn

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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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Early-Blooming Snowdrops

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2019 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

The species snowdrop Galanthus reginae-olgae blooming in our garden in October with ‘Shell Pink’ lamium.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

Around this time every year, I start to get emails from customers and blog readers asking which early-blooming snowdrops will be available for purchase in our catalogue.  When you see the photo above, you can understand why gardeners who appreciate snowdrops are trying to extend their season into early fall.   Early snowdrops are beautiful in their own right but especially appreciated when not surrounded by the many other snowdrop cultivars that flower in the heart of the snowdrop season.  And  this beautiful clump of fresh white flowers is in full bloom when everything around it is going by for the year.

Highlighted in this post are five, early-blooming snowdrops that will be available in the 2020 catalogue.  Keep in mind that exact bloom time is affected by how quickly the soil cools off in the fall and the amount of moisture available to the bulbs—warmer and drier falls seem to equate with later-blooming.

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 within the US.  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 interested in snowdrops.  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 reginae-olgae looks a lot like the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, but it blooms reliably by mid-October in our garden, and it has a more rigidly upright habit.

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G. reginae-olgae also lasts a long time—here it is looking a little worse for wear on December 3.

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The G. reginae-olgae that we sell comes from bulb expert Charles Cresson who selected it as a form that thrives in our climate as opposed to the other forms of this species he has trialed.  I too have tried G. reginae-olgae from other sources without success.

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Galanthus elwesii ‘Potter’s Prelude’ begins to bloom in mid-November in our garden and can often last into January.  It is a rare American snowdrop selected in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s.

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fall-blooming snowdrop 'Potter's Prelude' at Carolyn's Shade Gardens‘Potter’s Prelude’s’ flowers are big and beautiful.

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‘Potter’s Prelude’ is a great companion plant for fall-blooming camellias—here with the petals of ‘Winter’s Joy’.

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‘Potter’s Prelude’ has beautiful foliage.  The leaves of early-blooming snowdrops come out with or immediately after the flowers, which means that, if we have a hard winter, they can look somewhat battered when it is snowdrop shipping time in late February or early March.

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Galanthus elwesii ‘Barnes’ is a November-blooming snowdrop so highly regarded in England that it has earned the coveted Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society, one of only 28 snowdrops to do so.

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‘Barnes’ in our garden

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‘Barnes’ also remains ornamental for a long period of time.  It still looks great here at the very end of December.

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Galanthus elwesii ‘Standing Tall’ is a very large and beautiful December-blooming snowdrop selected by bulb expert Charles Cresson in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, after many years of evaluation.

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The big flowers have beautiful dark green markings.

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It is a bold plant that can hold its own among evergreen groundcovers like the Chinese wild ginger in the photo.

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Galanthus elwesii ‘Xmas’, a December-blooming snowdrop, originated at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC.  I introduced it and named it ‘Xmas’ because it blooms around Christmas and has a distinct X on its inner segments.

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‘Xmas’ is quite vigorous in my mid-Atlantic garden.

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Each plant quickly produces two or three flowers.

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‘Xmas’ is gorgeous on a sunny December day.

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When you look through our catalogue in December, think about adding some of these beautiful, early snowdrops.

Carolyn

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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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The 2019 Snowdrop Season Part Two

Posted in bulbs for shade, my garden, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 6, 2019 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

‘Wendy’s Gold’ is an elegant beauty.  It has taken me eight years to capture on film the graceful look and beautiful stature of this snowdrop.

In my last post The 2019 Snowdrop Season Part One, I showed some of my snowdrop photos that really communicate the essence of that particular selection.  To read it, click here.  I explained that there is nothing I like better than roaming around our garden photographing my collection and focusing on the differences that make each snowdrop so special.  The cold weather we have been experiencing is prolonging the snowdrop season, and many have yet to bloom.  Here are some more of my other recent captures:

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.

 

‘Wendy’s Gold’ in a group.  It is a good multiplier for me in a sloped location in my rock garden that gets deciduous shade.  I am currently trying it in two other locations.  There is a lot of variability in the growth rate of different snowdrops in different cultural conditions, and I am constantly experimenting.

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Galanthus reginae-olgae, sometimes called Queen Olga’s snowdrop as it was named after Queen Olga of Greece, blooms around October 15 in my garden.  During this unusual 2018-2019 season, the flowers lasted forever—this photo was taken December 3.  It received a coveted Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society (“RHS AGM”), one of only 28 snowdrops to do so.

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‘Three Ships’ never disappoints and always sails in around Christmas.  However, it is very slow to multiply.  RHS AGM

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On the other hand, ‘Faringdon Double’ blooms between Christmas and New Years and is a vigorous multiplier.  It took five years of attempts to portray all it charms in this photo.

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‘John Gray’ is an early snowdrop with very large flowers.  It was selected by avid gardener John Gray of Suffolk, England, and rescued from his garden, along with the famous ‘Mighty Atom’, and named by renowned horticulturist Bertram Anderson after Gray died in 1951.  RHS AGM

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‘Merlin’, along with the other iconic snowdrops ‘Magnet’, ‘Galatea’, and ‘Robin Hood’, were all selected by James Allen, called by the book The Galanthophiles “one of the greatest of all galanthophiles.”  I have found its particular combination of large bright white outer segments with bright green inner segments edged in white to be particularly difficult to show on film.  After nine years of trying, I am happy with this photo.  Although other snowdrops have come along with solid green inners, I do not think ‘Merlin’ has met it’s match.  RHS AGM

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‘Starling’ is a much more recent introduction selected by my friend the internationally famous snowdrop expert Alan Street at Avon Bulbs in England.  Its name means little star.  In my garden it is very vigorous, with a mass of roots and a large clump of leaves on each plant.

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‘Mrs. Macnamara’ is tall, elegant, and very early, making it stand out in the garden.  It originated from Dylan Thomas’s mother-in-law and was named for her by John Morley of North Green Snowdrops.  RHS AGM

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‘Bill Clark’ is new to me, and I particularly sought it out so that I can compare it to ‘Wendy’s Gold’ and ‘Madelaine’.  All three are Galanthus plicatus, the Crimean snowdrop species, with bright yellow flowers.  It is named after the Warden of Wandlebury Ring, an Iron Age hillfort located in Cambridgeshire, England, where ‘Bill Clark’ was discovered.

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‘Bertram Anderson’ has very large flowers and a classic beauty rarely surpassed.  It was selected from the Somerset garden of famous horticulturist E.B. (Bertram) Anderson after his death in 1971 and named for him.  RHS AGM

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‘Puck’ is a little cutey, named after the character in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, with a quirky nature and three extra segments, making it semi-double.

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It is difficult to name the particular charms of ‘Brenda Troyle’, but it is one of the most complimented snowdrops in my garden.  It was selected by William Thompson before his death in 1898 and sent to famous galanthophile Samuel Arnott, who named it.  Thompson was an expert beekeeper and probably grew snowdrops because they are one of the earliest flowers to attract honeybees.

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Honeybees have declined alarmingly in recent years, and if you want to help support them, snowdrops are a great flower to plant.  As soon as the temperature gets above freezing, the bees go foraging and during the winter snowdrops are one of the few flowers available.  My snowdrops are always covered with bees.

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Both these photos were taken by my customer Helen J. in Tennessee.  Thanks, Helen!

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Even in the freezing weather we are experiencing right now in the mid-Atlantic, I look out my kitchen window at this beautiful stand of ‘S. Arnott’.  It is considered by many the one snowdrop they would grow if they had to pick.  It was a seedling raised by the famous galanthophile Samuel Arnott.  RHS AGM

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Much of the historical information about these snowdrops, which I find fascinating, came from the recently published, excellent book The Galanthophiles by Jane Kilpatrick and Jennifer Harmer.

There are many more snowdrop varieties still waiting to open in my garden.

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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What’s Ornamental in Late Fall?

Posted in Camellias, Fall, Fall Color, How to, landscape design, my garden, Shade Perennials, snowdrops with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2014 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Cornus kousa 'Wolf's Eye'Gorgeous fall color of Kousa dogwood ‘Wolf Eyes’

In my last post, ‘What’s Blooming in Mid-Fall?” (click here to read), I explained that fall has three seasons for me: the early season is September, mid is October, and late is November.  I promised a post on the late season, which I fully intended to do at the end of November.  Unfortunately, the weather in the mid-Atlantic US just proceeded from temperatures typical of mid November, highs in the low 50s and lows in the low 40s, directly to temperatures more appropriate to January. When I got up this morning it was 24 degrees, and tonight’s low is 19 (-7.2 C), followed by three more nights in the low 20s.  Almost everything is frozen so I might as well do November now.

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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Cornus kousa 'Wolf's Eye'‘Wolf Eyes’ has green and white variegated leaves during its main season and turns pink in the fall.  Generally I recommend our native dogwood for its superior shape, flowers, berries, and fall color and because it supports 117 species of moths and butterflies alone while Kousa dogwood supports no native insects of any kind (source Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy).  However, if you want to plant a Kousa, ‘Wolf Eyes’ is beautiful.

I hope readers won’t be disappointed because, with the exception of snowdrops, camellias, and a few others, the best ornamental plants in my November garden are prized for their leaves.  October is probably the best month for fall color in the mid-Atlantic, and the landscape blazes with red, orange, and yellow from the huge deciduous trees we are famous for.  However, woody plants that wait until November to turn color really stand out because native maples, hornbeam, sweetgum, etc. are done by then.  Here are a few that I treasure:

Carolyn's Shade Gardens in fallScarlet native dogwood on the left, orange witch hazel in the center, and brilliant red Japanese maple on the right.  This is the hill above the Carolyn’s Shade Gardens nursery sales area.

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'Hartlage Wine' sweetshrubNative hybrid ‘Hartlage Wine’ sweetshrub turns a lovely butter yellow in late fall.

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Enkianthus & Hosta 'Krossa Regal'All the blue hostas turn an attractive orange-yellow.  Here ‘Krossa Regal’ with the fiery orange leaves of enkianthus and a yellow Asian sweetshrub in the woodland.

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Disanthus cercidifoliusDisanthus cercidifolius is probably my favorite plant for November color.  This photo shows the whole shrub, which is probably 10′ wide and 6′ tall, although it could easily be pruned to a smaller size.  Some websites call it redbud hazel, but I have never heard that common name used.

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Disanthus cercidifoliusA close up of the leaves shows that disanthus displays many beautiful colors at once.  You can also see why it’s called cercidifolius, which means leaves like a redbud.

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Disanthus cercidifoliusDisanthus also blooms in November with tiny scarlet flowers.

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Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Sasaba'Another shrub that blooms in November is evergreen ‘Sasaba’ osmanthus.  Again the flowers are not highly ornamental but they are amazingly fragrant, sweetly scenting my whole back hillside.

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Camellia x 'Long Island Pink'Fall-blooming camellias are the highlight for flowering shrubs in November, here ‘Long Island Pink’ which started October 15.

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Camellia x 'Snow Flurry'‘Snow Flurry’ also continues to bloom.

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Camellia x 'Winter's Joy'‘Winter’s Joy’ starts in November and often continues into January.  I just hope its buds don’t freeze this week.

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Camellia x 'Winter's Snowman'‘Winter’s Snowman’ also starts in November.  I was going to show the whole plant, but all the open flowers froze last night.

Perennials also contribute to November interest:

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Hypericum 'Brigadoon'‘Brigadoon’ St. John’s wort and ‘John Creech’ sedum were not fazed by last night’s low.

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Aconitum species at ChanticleerThis late-blooming monkshood is always a highlight of my November garden, although it froze last night.  Shown here at Chanticleer.

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Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie'All the coralbells derived from our native Heuchera villosa keep their beautiful color in fall and through the winter, here ‘Berry Smoothie’.

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Malva 'Zebrina' ‘Zebrina’ hollyhock mallow gets a second wind in the fall and is covered with blooms in November.

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Arum 'Gold Rush'Italian arum comes up in the fall and stays ornamental all winter, it’s amazing.

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Pennisetum 'Moudry'Fall light slanting through my favorite ornamental grass ‘Moudry’ fountain grass.

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Pennisetum 'Moudry'Beware, ‘Moudry’s black plumes are quite striking, however, it can be quite aggressive.  I didn’t actually plant any of these plants, but I love where they planted themselves.

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Hart's tongue fern with epimediumHart’s tongue fern and evergreen epimediums are also beautiful right now and for most of the winter.

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Helleborus x 'Penny's Pink'Hellebores stay green through the winter, and some of them have spectacular leaves, here ‘Penny’s Pink’.

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Galanthus reginae-olgaeI couldn’t finish without showing some snowdrops!  Galanthus reginae-olgae finishes blooming in the middle of November.

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Galanthus elwesii "two scapes'I have a lot of fall-blooming giant snowdrops, Galanthus elwesii.  Here is one that I have selected for its nice markings and because it produces two flower scapes per plant.  It still looks pristine after last night’s freeze.

Keep warm,

Carolyn

 

Nursery Happenings:   You can sign up to receive notifications of catalogues, sales, and events at the nursery by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.

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

If you are within visiting distance and would like to receive catalogues and information about customer events, please send your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.

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.

29 Comments »

What’s Blooming in Mid-Fall?

Posted in Fall, Fall Color, How to, landscape design, my garden, Shade Perennials with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 9, 2014 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

Hygrangea 'Limelight', Aster cordifolius, Rudbeckia triloba‘Limelight’ hydrangea, native blue wood aster, and native brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) shine through October.

For me, fall has three seasons, early, middle, and late, and they do not conform to the calendar definition of fall.  Early fall plants perform in September, a month that is technically summer until the equinox.  Mid-fall plants peak in October, and late fall plants grace November.  As far as I am concerned, December is winter no matter what the calendar says.  The first post in this series covered September bloomers, for details click here.  This post features perennials and shrubs that make a daily walk through my garden worthwhile in October, even as the weather cools.  The next post will feature plants for November.

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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Hydrangea 'Limelight'As the weather cools in October, ‘Limelight’ hydrangea’s flowers take on this lovely pink hue.

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Anemone x 'Honorine Joubert'Some of my other favorite Japanese anemones like ‘September Charm’ and ‘Pamina’ may extend into October, but ‘Honorine Joubert’ is the queen, blooming throughout the month.  It also has the best habit and most flowers of any Japanese anemone that I grow.

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Callicarpa 'Early Amethyst'Berries are very important in October, and none is more eye-catching than beautyberry, here ‘Early Amethyst’, an Asian variety.

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Callicarpa 'Early Amethyst'The unusual purple berries are elegantly set off by the lime green leaves.  When the leaves drop in November, the berries persist.

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Callicarpa americanaI actually prefer the cluster form and color of native callicarpa berries, but Callicarpa americana may have hardiness issues in our zone.  I lost two of my three established plants last winter.  The third is huge and vigorous though.

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Persicaria 'Purple Dragon'My ‘Red Dragon’ fleece flower bloomed beautifully this year, and the purple leaves still look great in October.

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Cyclamen hederifolium at ChanticleerOctober is the month for fall-blooming hardy cyclamen and the wonderful leaves remain gorgeous all winter (photo taken at Chanticleer).

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Cyclamen hederifolium 'Alba'‘Album’ is a white-blooming form of hardy cyclamen.

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Tricyrtis 'Sinonome'‘Sinonome’ toad-lily is another outstanding October plant and continues full strength until the first frost.  This photo was taken October 23, and plenty of unopened buds remain.

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Tricyrtis 'Sinonome'A close up of ‘Sinonome’s orchid like flowers.

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TricyrtisAnother toad-lily with a beautiful habit blooming in October at Welkinweir Estate Garden in Pottstown.  There was no sign, but it may be Tricyrtis hirta ‘Variegata’.

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Amsonia hubrichtii at ChanticleerNative threadleaf bluestar shines again in October when it turns this gorgeous yellow-orange, here at Chanticleer.

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Cimicifuga Scott Arboretum Fall 2014Cimicifuga’s (actaea) soaring, beautifully scented candelabras are dramatic in October, here at the Scott Arboretum.

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Aster tartaricusTartarian aster takes over when all the other asters except native blue wood aster (see first photo) are done.

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Ceratostigma plumbaginoides & Corydalis luteaYellow corydalis blooms all season and continues on into November, while the blue flowers of autumn leadwort start in June and peak in September and October.

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Mid-October marks the start of the snowdrop and camellia season, two plants that carry me through the depths of winter and into spring.  Although the variety broadens considerably in November, I want to show you the snowdrops and camellias that start the show:

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Galanthus reginae-olgae, Lamium 'Shell Pink'The fall-blooming snowdrop species, Galanthus reginae-olgae, sometimes called Queen Olga’s snowdrop because it was named for the Queen of Greece, always blooms by October 15.  Shown here with my favorite lamium, ‘Shell Pink’, which flowers all season.

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Galanthus reginae-olgae 'Tilebarn Jamie'Galanthus reginae-olgae ‘Tilebarn Jamie’ is an improvement on the straight species with bigger, rounded flowers and two flower stems per plant.

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Camellia x 'Snow Flurry'I am so thrilled that this spring, I finally found ‘Snow Flurry’ fall-blooming camellia to plant in my garden.  It starts the camellia season off with a glorious show in mid-October.

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Camellia 'Lu Shan Snow'‘Lu Shan Snow’ is my oldest camellia and starts the third week of October.

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Camellia x 'Long Island Pink'‘Long Island Pink’ is another early fall-blooming camellia starting in mid-October.  I planted it last fall, and it sailed through our terrible winter to produce a large crop of flowers this fall.

Carolyn

 

Nursery Happenings:   You can sign up to receive notifications of catalogues, sales, and events at the nursery by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.

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

If you are within visiting distance and would like to receive catalogues and information about customer events, please send your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.

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.

28 Comments »

New Feature Article on Snowdrops

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2013 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

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.  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.

Galanthus elwesiiEvery photo in this collage is of a giant snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii, in my garden.  The differences in the markings are caused by the natural variation in the species.  None of them have been selected and given a cultivar name, although many plants like them have been named, probably too many.  Yet I find this variation fascinating.

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

To be put on the special snowdrop email list, please send your full name, cell number, and mailing address to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate that you are interested in snowdrops.

In this post you will find links to and descriptions of every post I have written on snowdrops.  The original purpose of this post was to let readers know that The Hardy Plant Society Mid-Atlantic Group honored me by asking me to write an article on snowdrops for their newsletter. It is called “Confessions of a Galanthophile” and is the Feature Article for the January 2013 Newsletter.  You can access the on line version by clicking here.

Galanthus gracilis, an elegant species snowdrop.

While letting you know about the Hardy Plant Society article, which makes use of parts of some of my previous blog posts, I thought this post would be a good place to list all the articles that I have written on snowdrops for easy reference.  I have interspersed the article names and links with photos of some of my favorite snowdrops.

A very unusual and pricey newer snowdrop with squared off outer segments, ‘Diggory’.

November 22, 2010

“Snowdrops or the Confessions of a Galanthophile”

origins of galanthomania, fall-blooming snowdrops

profiles G. reginae-olgae and ‘Potter’s Prelude’

click here to read

Galanthus reginae-olgae, Lamium 'Shell Pink'G. reginae-olgae blooms in the fall with ‘Shell Pink’ lamium.

January 22, 2011

“Snowdrops: Further Confessions of a Galanthophile”

fascinating history of snowdrop cultivars

short profiles of 16 snowdrop cultivars

click here to read

Galanthus rizehensisGalanthus rizehensis, a species snowdrop.

February 9, 2011

“Are Snowdrops Thermogenic?”

discusses plants that produce their own heat

click here to read

Galanthus woronowii Cresson Garden The shiny bright green leaves of the species snowdrop G. woronowii.

January 19, 2012

“New Snowdrops for 2012”

importance of provenance in snowdrop collecting

profiles ‘Brenda Troyle’, ‘Tiny’, ‘Hippolyta’, ‘Dionysus’, and G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus

click here to read

Galanthus 'Potter's Prelude'The lovely American, fall-blooming snowdrop ‘Potter’s Prelude’.

January 7, 2013

‘New Snowdrops for 2013″

where to find information on snowdrops

profiles ‘Wendy’s Gold’, ‘Standing Tall’, ‘Mighty Atom’, and ‘Scharlockii’

click here to read

A new American snowdrop introduced by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens, Galanthus elwesii ‘Xmas’

The Hardy Plant Society Mid-Atlantic Group

January 2013 Newsletter

“Confessions of a Galanthophile”

why gardeners collect snowdrops

click here to read

'Straffan' by Jonathan Shaw‘Straffan’, photo by Jonathan Shaw

January 5, 2014

“The Un-Common Snowdrop”

the common snowdrop and its cultivars

profiles G. nivalis, ‘Flore Pleno’, ‘Viridapice’, and ‘Blewbury Tart’

click here to read

My favorite single classic snowdrop, ‘Magnet’.

January 16, 2014

“The Sochi Snowdrop”

G. woronowii and its cultivars

profiles G. woronowii and ‘Elizabeth Harrison’

click here to read

‘Kite’, very early-blooming with extremely long outer segments.

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Galanthus elwesii 'Kite' twp scapes‘Kite’ can have twin flowers on one flower stalk.

January 27, 2014

“Top 25 Snowdrop Plants Part One”

UK ranking of top 25 all-time favorite snowdrops

profiles and photos of snowdrops ranked 13 to 25

click here to read

‘Godfrey Owen’ has six outer segments.

 February 4, 2014

“Top 25 Snowdrop Plants Part Two”

UK ranking of top 25 all-time favorite snowdrops

profiles and photos of snowdrops ranked 1 to 12

click here to read

Galanthus nivalis 'Lady Elphinstone' CadwaladerThe gorgeous double yellow snowdrop ‘Lady Elphinstone’

December 2, 2014

“Do All Snowdrops Look Alike?”

shows the many very different types of snowdrops available

  photos of 14 strikingly different cultivars

click here to read

Galanthus 'Viridapice'Although considered ordinary by some, ‘Viridapice’ remains one of my favorite snowdrops.

December 9, 2014

“New Snowdrops for 2015”

  profiles ‘Blonde Inge’, ‘Diggory’, ‘Walrus’, and ‘Wasp’

click here to read

‘Cowhouse Green’ is a lovely part virescent snowdrop.

January 5, 2015

“Companion Plants for Snowdrops”

snowdrops are great alone but look even better with other winter interest plants

  profiles 10 winter-blooming plants to pair with snowdrops

click here to read

‘Walrus’ is ranked number 12 in all-time favorite snowdrops.

January 14, 2015

“New Snowdrop Book”

Kew Gardens A Plant Lover’s Guide to Snowdrops

review with images from the book

click here to read

Leucojum vernum var. carpathicumAn unusual form of spring snowflake with yellow markings, Leucojum vernum var. carpathicum.

March 17, 2016

“Snowflakes (Leucojum) Continue the Snowdrop Season”

profiles many unusual forms of snowflakes, a close relative of snowdrops

click here to read

2017-catalogue-collage-11-26-2016-12-14-18-pm-11-26-2016-12-14-18-pmSome of my special snowdrops that I want to keep well marked.

December 6, 2016

“Curating a Plant Collection: Snowdrops or Otherwise”

how to keep track of your growing snowdrop collection

click here to read

The naturally blue lake at Colesborne Park below a hillside of snowdrops.

March 3, 2017

“Drifts of Snowdrops at Colesbourne Park”

photos and descriptions of our February 2017 trip to the famous English snowdrop venues

click here to read

March 15, 2017

“Snowdrops at the Royal Horticultural Society Spring Show”

setting up the Avon Bulbs snowdrop exhibit at the February 2017 show in London

click here to read

‘Fly Fishing’

November 18, 2017

“New Snowdrops for 2018”

profiles of ‘Ailwyn’, ‘Angelique’, ‘Bertram Anderson’, ‘Greenish’, ‘Fly Fishing’, and ‘Colossus’

click here to read

‘South Hayes’

November 28, 2017

“New Snowdrops for 2018 Part Two”

profiles of ‘Jonathan’, ‘Madelaine’, ‘Mrs. Macnamara’, ‘Welshway’, ‘South Hayes’, and ‘Titania’

click here to read

Galanthus 'Lapwing'‘Lapwing’ has a great mark and is a vigorous multiplier.

December 5, 2017

“Fine Gardening Feature Article on Snowdrops”

reprint of my cover article for the February 2016 issue of Fine Gardening

click here to read

Snowdrops and hellebores along the path to a folly at Painswick.

December 29, 2017

“Painswick Rococo Garden”

tour of winter garden and snowdrops at Painswick Rococo Gardens

click here to read

John Morley welcomes us to the gardens at North Green Snowdrops.

January 15, 2018

“North Green Snowdrops”

tour of the snowdrop garden at North Green Snowdrops

click here to read

 The best place to see snowdrops in England is Colesbourne Park in the Cotswolds.

March 7, 2018

“Exceptional Snowdrops and Gardens, England February 2018”

highlights of winter gardens and snowdrops in England

click here to read

Rodmarton Manor has an extensive snowdrop collection in its Arts and Crafts garden.

March 20, 2018

“Rodmarton Manor Garden”

tour of Rodmarton Manor’s winter garden and snowdrop collection

click here to read

‘Sprite’ is a beautiful and distinct snowdrop selected at Avon Bulbs.

March 25, 2018

“A Day in the Life of an Avon Bulbs Snowdrop”

introduction of new snowdrops at Avon Bulbs in England

click here to read

‘Art Nouveau’ has a unique and elegant look.

November 13, 2018

“New Snowdrops for 2019: Part One”

profiles of ‘Godfrey Owen’, ‘Barnes’, ‘Art Nouveau’, ‘Armine’, ‘Puck’, and ‘Sprite’

click here to read

‘Richard Ayres’ is a large and vigorous double.

November 27, 2018

“New Snowdrops for 2019: Part Two”

profiles of ‘Richard Ayres’, ‘Green Brush’, ‘Faringdon Double’, ‘Merlin’, ‘Trym’, and ‘Starling’

click here to read

‘Three Ships’ is a gorgeous G. plicatus that blooms around Christmas.

December 11, 2018

“Your February 2019 Snowdrop Trip to England”

planning a trip to England during snowdrop season

click here to read

‘Xmas’ was selected, named, and introduced by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.

October 23, 2019

“Early-Blooming Snowdrops”

profiles G. reginae olgae, ‘Potter’s Prelude’, ‘Barnes’, ‘Standing Tall’, and ‘Xmas’

click here to read

‘S. Arnott’ is the favorite snowdrop of galanthophiles everywhere.

November 2, 2020

“Classic Snowdrops”

profiles ‘Atkinsii’, ‘S. Arnott’, ‘Merlin’, ‘Hill Poe’, and ‘Scharlockii’

click here to read

‘One Drop or Two?’ is a rare twin-flowered snowdrop.

November 14, 2020

“New Snowdrops for 2021”

profiles ‘Beth Chatto’, ‘Bill Clark’, ‘Bagpuize Virginia’, ‘Fieldgate Prelude’, ‘Natalie Garton’, ‘Pom Pom’, and ‘One Drop or Two?’

click here to read

“Sarah Dumont’ has gorgeous yellow markings.

November 21, 2020

“New Snowdrops for 2021: Part 2”

profiles ‘Sarah Dumont’, G. nivalis subsp. poculiformis, ‘Green Arrow’, ‘Moortown Mighty’, ‘Wonston Double’, and ‘Trympostor’

click here to read

Galanthus EA Bowles‘E.A. Bowles’ looks like a white miniature daffodil.

November 13, 2021

“New Snowdrops for 2022: Part 1”

profiles ‘E.A. Bowles’, ‘The Wizard’, ‘Mrs. Thompson’, ‘Cordelia’, and ‘Phantom’

click here to read

img032New snowdrop reference book

November 17, 2022

“Some Snowdrops: A photographic Ramble by Anne Repnow”

profiles ‘Three Ships’, ‘Standing Tall’, ‘Wasp’, and ‘Godfrey Owen’ and reviews a wonderful new snowdrop book

click here to read

Galanthus Midas‘Midas’ is a color breakthrough for snowdrops.

November 20, 2021

“New Snowdrops for 2022: Part 2”

profiles ‘Midas’, ‘Augustus’, ‘Cowhouse Green’, ‘Desdemona’, ‘Moses Basket’, and ‘Rodmarton Arcturus’

click here to read

‘Walker Canada’ is big and beautiful.

November 19, 2022

“New Snowdrops for 2023: Part 1”

profiles ‘June Boardman’, G. reginae-olgae, ‘Rodmarton’, ‘Scissors’, and ‘Walker Canada’

click here to read

‘Rosemary Burnham’, an elegant virescent snowdrop

November 26, 2023

“New Snowdrops for 2023: Part 2”

profiles ‘Rosemary Burnham’, ‘Cambridge’, ‘Colossus’, ‘Betty Hansell’, and ‘Warwickshire Gemini’

click here to read

The moat at Benington Lordship Castle

November 11, 2023

“Snowdrops and History at Benington Lordship Gardens”

A 12th century castle near Cambridge, England, with a moat full of snowdrops

click here to read

The walls of Wandlebury Ring enclose tens of thuosands of G. plicatus.

November 19, 2023

“Wandlebury Ring”

An iron age hillfort outside of Cambridge, England, with a naturalized population of G. plicatus

click here to read

‘Phil Cornish’ may be the most beautiful inverse poculiform snowdrop.

November 26, 2023

“New Snowdrops for 2024: Part 1

profiles ‘Anglesey Candlelight’, ‘Phil Cornish’, ‘Daphne’s Scissors’, ‘Franz Josef’, and ‘George Elwes’

click here to read

‘Miss Prissy’ is a very full and neat double that faces outward.

November 28, 2023

“New Snowdrops for 2024: Part 2

profiles ‘Miss Prissy’, ‘Excelsis’, ‘Big Bertha’, ‘Washfield Colesbourne’, and ‘Ivy Cottage Corporal’

click here to read

‘John Gray’ is an outstanding member of the “Might Atom” group of snowdrops

December 3, 2023

“New Snowdrops for 2024: Part 3”

profiles ‘Marjorie Brown’, ‘Fenstead End’, Trumpolute’, ‘Big Eyes’, and ‘John Gray’

click here to read

‘Standing Tall’ is an American selection with a distinct habit.

December 20, 2023

“December Blooming Snowdrops”

profiles ‘Potter’s Prelude’, Standing Tall’, ‘Three Ships’, and ‘Xmas’

click here to read

‘Spindlestone Surprise’ is a lovely yellow.

March 20, 2024

“Snowdrops: Live Radio Interview”

live interview of Carolyn with a lot of information about snowdrops

click here to listen

Galanthus Mrs. Thompson‘Mrs. Thompson’s’ erratic flowers are a plus.

2024 Snowdrop Catalogue

Over 40 varieties of snowdrops and snowflakes plus winter aconite for sale mail order in the US

click here to access

Galanthus nivalis 'Blonde Inge'‘Blonde Inge’ is breathtaking in a mass and bulks up quickly.

* * * * *

All the posts as well as the catalogue itself, provide interesting and informative reading on subjects ranging from the origins of galanthomania, the fascinating history of snowdrops, their provenance, how to research them, and even whether they produce their own heat.  I intend to add titles and links through the years as I write more about one of my favorite topics.

Enjoy, Carolyn

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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.

42 Comments »

November GBBD: What’s Peaking Now

Posted in evergreen, Fall, Fall Color, hellebores, snowdrops with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2012 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

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.

This Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, of unknown origin broke off in the ice and snow in January 2011.  For a photo of it then, click here.  It has recovered beautifully with an even more interesting habit.

I have said before that no matter how much I try to enjoy it, November is not my favorite month.  As I wander around, all I see are plants dying back, work to be done, and time running out.  Last year wasn’t too bad because we had a long warm fall with beautiful weather and plenty going on through the middle of November.  I even called my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post “Prime Time” (click here to see the show).  This year most gardeners in the mid-Atlantic US agree that fall colors on many plants have been muted and gardens have gone by early.  Even September and October contained few of the clear, crisp, and sunny days we look forward to, and then along came Sandy.

A seedling Japanese maple along my front walk.

Despite the bad fall, there are plants in my garden right now that make a stroll outside worthwhile.  What is it about them that so attracts me?  It is that these plants are reaching their ornamental height right now.  They are not just re-blooming or showing a few flowers on a plant that really peaked earlier like asters or phlox, and they are not producing lovely fall color on a woody that I grow just as much for its flowers like hydrangea or viburnum.  November is the month when they reach the top.

The Japanese maples that seeded around this London plane tree produce a variety of fall colors from yellow to orange to red.

In this post I re-introduce you to some of the plants that show their best side in November and December.  I have written about many of them before, and I will provide links to those posts.  However, I wanted to gather these plants together here to provide a complete reference of fall stars to use during your spring shopping  trips.

‘Shishigashira’ is a gorgeous Japanese maple that just starts to turn in mid-November.  It will eventually become a solid orangey red.

When all the other trees have shown their colors and lost their leaves, Japanese maples are just starting to turn.  Every time I go outside I grab my camera to take one more shot of their eye-catching color.  I think it is their prime ornamental characteristic, especially because of its timing, even though I also appreciate their fine branching structure, delicate leaves, and variety of habits.

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium.

The white and pink flowers of hardy cyclamen.

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen is dormant in the summer and re-emerges in the fall.  To get all the details, click here to read my recent post on this unusual but easy to grow plant.  For the purposes of this post, what makes it so desirable is that November is its peak when its leaves are fully emerged and provide a stunning backdrop for the flowers.

The basic Italian arum, A. italicum, sometimes called ‘Pictum’.

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‘Gold Dust’ Italian arum has much more distinct markings with gold veins.


The leaves of ‘Tiny Tot’ Italian arum are about one-third the size (or less) of the species and very finely marked.


Italian arum’s life cycle is very similar to hardy cyclamen: it goes dormant in the summer and comes up fresh and beautiful to peak in the fall and through the winter.  It makes a great groundcover, and you can read more about it by clicking here.


Giant snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii.

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A giant snowdrop with unusually long outer segments (petals).

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‘Potter’s Prelude’ giant snowdrop, G. elwesii var. monostichus, is just starting to open in mid-November.

I couldn’t write a post this time of year without mentioning fall-blooming snowdrops.  Although we think of snowdrops as blooming in March, there are several species that bloom in the fall, including G. reginae-olgae, which blooms in October and is done now.  Also the giant snowdrop, whose flowers are quite variable, blooms for a long period from November to February so I have included some photos above.  But the king of fall is ‘Potter’s Prelude’, a very robust and vigorous snowdrop that blooms reliably in November.  For more information, click here to read my post on fall-blooming snowdrops.

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Christmas rose ‘Josef Lemper’, Helleborus niger

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This photo was taken today—as you can see ‘Josef’ Lemper’s’ October flowers have gone by, but a whole new crop of buds are preparing for November.

 

The Christmas rose ‘Jacob’ begins a month later that ‘Josef Lemper’.  Its buds are just beginning to reach up beyond the leaves.

‘Josef Lemper’ and ‘Jacob’ Christmas roses are also stars in my November garden, producing pure white 3 to 4″ wide flowers set off by smooth evergreen leaves.  Fall is their season, and they produce copious amounts of flowers to cheer up dreary November days.  For more information on fall-blooming hellebores, click here.

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Fall-blooming camellia ‘Winter’s Joy’ produces its first two flowers but look at all the buds to come.

The last photo is a teaser because of course fall-blooming camellias play a huge part in my November garden.  As with the other plants profiled, they are not just hanging on into November but instead come into their own then.  Look for an upcoming post featuring my camellias and my recent visit to the garden of a customer who also loves camellias.

All these plants (except the single flower of ‘Josef Lemper’ Christmas rose) are pictured blooming in my garden right now so I am linking to Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day (“GBBD”) hosted by May Dreams Gardens where gardeners from all over the world publish photos of what’s blooming in their gardens.

Carolyn

 

Nursery Happenings:  Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is done for the fall.  Thanks for a great year.  See you in spring 2013.

If you are within visiting distance and would like to receive catalogues and information about customer events, please send your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.  Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.

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.

 

37 Comments »

November GBBD: Prime Time

Posted in Camellias, Fall Color, Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, Shade Perennials, Shade Shrubs with tags , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2011 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

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 within the US.  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 interested in snowdrops, hellebores, and/or hostas.  Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

I think Disanthus cercidifolius (no common name) has the best fall color of any plant in my garden.  It is also in full bloom right now (photo below).

It is the middle of the month and time to participate in Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day hosted by May Dreams Gardens where gardeners from all over the world publish photos of what’s blooming in their gardens.  I participate because it is fun and educational for me to identify what plants make my gardens shine at different times of the year.  I also hope that my customers will get some ideas for plants to add to their own gardens to extend their season well into fall.  I am also joining my friend Donna’s Word for Wednesday theme of texture and pattern at her blog Garden Walk Garden Talk.

My garden is located in Bryn Mawr (outside Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, U.S., in zone 6B.


The re-blooming tall bearded iris ‘Clarence’ is a star performer in my fall garden.  It got knocked over by our unseasonable snow storm so it doesn’t look like this now, but it continues to bloom.

In colder months there is a tendency to include GBBD photos of anything with a flower, and I may do that in January.  But fall is still prime time in my gardens (no hard frost yet) so I am showing here only plants that are at their peak between October 15 and November 15 (I do not take all my photos on November 15).  This means that they bloom now (or are still blooming), have ornamental fruit, or feature exceptional fall color during this period.  For more ornamental ideas for fall, see A Few Fall Favorites for Flowers and A Few Fall Favorites for Foliage and Fruit.

Let’s start with perennials:

Fall-blooming hardy cyclamen, C. hederifolium, continues to flower through November.

Yes, the snowdrop season has started with Galanthus reginae-olgae, which has been blooming since mid-October.  Fall-blooming ‘Potter’s Prelude’ has just produced its first flowers as has the giant snowdrop, G. elwesii, but they will be featured next month .

When I was touring Chanticleer this spring one of the gardeners gave me a clump of this very late-blooming monkshood, Aconitum sp.  I am not sure what species it is, but I am loving it’s dark violet-blue flowers.

‘Immortality’ is another re-blooming tall bearded iris that puts on a fall show.  I appreciate these flowers much more now when most other showy blooms are gone.

‘Zebrina’ hollyhock mallow, Malva sylvestris ‘Zebrina’, shows up in the most unlikely places in my garden, here my terrace stairs, and produces generous quantities of blooms through fall.

Gorgeous ‘Moudry’ black fountain grass, Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Moudry’, is one of the most asked about perennials in my fall garden and is well behaved here, but it can spread aggressively in some sites.

Hellebore season has started too with this little gem that was sold to me as Helleborus dumetorum (no common name), probably mislabeled.  Christmas rose ‘Josef Lemper’ has been blooming for quite a while but has no fresh flowers now.  I will include it next month.

Here are some trees and shrubs that I would grow for their ornamental contribution to the fall garden from flowers or berries:

The award winning hydrangea ‘Limelight’, H. paniculata ‘Limelight’, continues to produce fresh flowers late into fall.

Pond cypress, Taxodium ascendens, is ornamental almost all the time, but I would grow it even if all it did was produce these gorgeous cones.

Native green hawthorn ‘Winter King’, Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’, has produced a bumper crop of berries this year, which the robins are just starting to enjoy.

The flowers on my evergreen ‘Sasaba’ holly osmanthus, O. heterophyllus ‘Sasaba’, are small but they make up for their size with their heavenly fragrance which perfumes the whole garden.

The berries of evergreen Japanese skimmia, S. japonica, persist well into spring.

Disanthus cercidifolius is in full bloom right now.

The scarlet flowers are interesting and beautiful, but you have to get quite close to see them.

All my fall-blooming camellias are covered with flowers.  The first four pictured below are Ackerman hybrids, which are hardy in zone 6 see Fall-Blooming Camellias Part 1, and the final plant is one of their parents:

Camellia x ‘Elaine Lee’

Camellia x ‘Winter’s Joy’

Camellia x ‘Winter’s Snowman’

Camellia x ‘Winter’s Darling’

Fall-blooming Camellia oleifera was introduced to the U.S. from China in 1948.  In 1980, Dr. Ackerman at the U.S. National Arboretum noticed that it alone survived the U.S. mid-Atlantic’s cold winters and began crossing it with non-hardy fall-blooming species to produce what are now known as the Ackerman hybrids.  My camellia in the photo above is a seedling from the original C. oleifera ‘Lu Shan Snow’ at the National Arboretum.

There are dozens of plants that are vying to be included on GBBD because of their beautiful fall color.  However, I have decided to showcase only the seven that I think are exceptional, including disanthus pictured above and at the very beginning of the post:

Our Pennsylvania native vine Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, is underused in gardens especially when you consider its fall look.

Many magnolias, including star magnolia, turn a lovely yellow in the fall, but native hybrid Magnolia x ‘Yellow Bird’ (named for its yellow flowers) is the most beautiful.

Redvein enkianthus, E. campanulatus

Pennsylvania native oakleaf hydrangea, H. quercifolia, is ornamental 365 days a year, but it definitely reaches one of its peaks in the fall.

Another woody with 365 days of interest, coral bark maple, Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’, has stunning and long-lasting fall color.  For more information on this lovely tree, read Coral Bark Maple.

Pennsylvania native sugar maple, Acer saccharum, has gorgeous orange fall color.  Pictured above is a sugar maple tree in my garden that turns red instead of orange.  Sadly, when the iconic Princeton Nursery closed its doors, they had been evaluating it for seven years for possible introduction.

Enjoy your fall,  Carolyn

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. 

92 Comments »

Snowdrops: Further Confessions of a Galanthophile

Posted in bulbs for shade, New Plants, snowdrops with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2011 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

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.

Galanthus ‘Atkinsii’ described in Snowdrops as having “elegant elongated flowers that suggest the drop-pearl earrings of Elizabeth I,”  I can’t improve on that

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Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here.

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This article includes photographs and colorful descriptions of the 15 snowdrops I am offering for sale in my 2011 Snowdrop Catalogue.

 

In my garden, I have many forms of Galanthus elwesii, which was named for Henry John Elwes (1846-1922), described as a “true energetic Victorian” combing the world for big game, fine trees, insects, birds, and snowdrops

 

In my article Snowdrops or the Confessions of a Galanthophile, I revealed that I am obsessed with snowdrops.  I described my evolution from a gardener growing a few distinct varieties to a galanthophile collecting every cultivated snowdrop I could get my hands on.  I explained that I could now see the often subtle differences between flowers that others might unknowingly (shall we say ignorantly) dismiss as ridiculous.  To understand how far I have gone down this road, know that I recently found myself describing a snowdrop as having “a bold inner marking with a basal blotch narrowly joined to an apical round-armed V.”  There is no turning back.

 

Galanthus nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’, probably the oldest snowdrop cultivar  in existence with records as early as 1703

 

But I didn’t talk about one of the things I find most fascinating about snowdrops.  They are the only plant that I would purchase as much for their colorful history as for their ornamental characteristics.  And how do I find out about their captivating  lineage: I consult Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Matt Bishop, Aaron Davis, and John Grimshaw (Griffin Press 2006).  This book, always referred to as the snowdrop bible, has all the information anyone could want about the 500 “commonly” cultivated snowdrops.

 

The Greatorex Double, Galanthus ‘Ophelia’

After reading Snowdrops, who would not want Galanthus ‘Ophelia’, a beautiful double snowdrop, when it was originated by Heyrick Greatorex of Brundall, Norfolk, England, a man who lived “an unconventional lifestyle” in a wooden garden shed that might have been a railway carriage?  Or a snowdrop like Galanthus ‘Magnet’ that has reached its centenary [a word not used commonly in the US so I had to look it up] and was probably named for “the old-fashioned child’s game in which magnets are attached to miniature fishing rods for the purpose of picking up painted metal fish, the point being to win the game by catching the most?”  I played that game.

 

Galanthus ‘Magnet’, can you can see the miniature fishing rod?

Galanthus ‘Straffan’, Baron Clarina of Ireland’s souvenir of the Crimean War

Who can resist the indestructible Galanthus ‘Straffan’, the third oldest snowdrop cultivar still in existence, discovered in the later 1800s by the head gardener for Straffan House in County Kildare, Ireland, in a clump of G. plicatus brought back from the Crimean War by the owner, the fourth Baron Clarina?  Or October-flowering Galanthus reginae-olgae, named in 1876 in honor of Queen Olga of Greece, the grandmother of  the current Duke of Edinburgh?  [In the US, we would say grandmother of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband.]

 

The October-flowering Galanthus reginae-olgae, named for Prince Philip’s grandmother, photo Charles Cresson

Galanthus nivalis/Common SnowdropGalanthus nivalis, the common snowdrop, has a 500-year lineage to brag about

 

Even the plain old common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, an imminently garden-worthy plant, has been cultivated as an ornamental in England since the 16th century.  There are written records.  The species snowdrop, Galanthus woronowii, was collected on the eastern shores of the Black Sea and named by a Russian botanist for Russian plant collector Georg Jurii Nikolaewitch Woronow (1874-1931).

The shiny green leaves of Galanthus woronowii named for plant collector Georg Jurii Nikolaewitch Woronow, photo Charles Cresson

 

Galanthus ‘Blewbury Tart’ found by Alan Street in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, England

Even more modern snowdrops have name-dropping heritages.  Snowdrops tells us that when noted horticulturist Alan Street of the well known English bulb house, Avon Bulbs, and the discoverer of Galanthus ‘Blewbury Tart’, gave three bulbs instead of one to quirky English gardener, Primrose Warburg (1920-1996), she “characteristically complained” and called it ‘Blewbury Muffin’.  This is the same Primrose Warburg who we are told cautioned visitors navigating her treacherous garden slope to be careful, not because they might hurt themselves, but because the snowdrops were irreplaceable. Galanthus ‘Beth Chatto’ was, of course, discovered in the gardens of the internationally famous gardener and writer, Beth Chatto, OBE [Order of the British Empire].

 

Galanthus ‘Beth Chatto’ from the internationally famous Beth Chatto Gardens

 

Snowdrops describes Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’ as the “classic snowdrop….a first-class garden plant with an unquestionable constitution, admired by everyone,” photo Charles Cresson

Other cultivars have discussions of their origins so complicated as to rival the US Tax Code, something I am familiar with from my former career. Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’ is in danger of losing its name to ‘Arnott’s Seedling’, the name under which it was given the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, but a name deemed unsuitable because E.A. Bowles, “one of the most revered plantsman of all times,” later called it ‘S. Arnott’.  The  International Cultivar Registration Society in the Netherlands has been so advised. Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridapice’ has evidently had many imitators since it was discovered prior to 1922 near an old farmhouse in northern Holland, and confusion is rampant.

 

Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridapice’, hopefully not an impostor

Please do not think I am in any way making fun of this book.  I love it, and I wish all plant genera had books this information-packed and well written dedicated to them.  I list Snowdrops on my Blotanical profile as the garden book I am currently reading because I am always reading it.  Rumor has it that a new edition is in the works (for an update from John Grimshaw, click here), and I will buy it.  If you like snowdrops, you should own it too.

Well, based on the tales found in the snowdrop bible, what cultivars are in my future?  I am intrigued by ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’, a vigorous double, whose namesake (1877-1944) struggled to create an English garden in India when her husband was Governor of Madras.  I have my eye on ‘Merlin’ with its solid green blotch, whose stock was maintained by Amy Doncaster (1894-1995), “a greatly admired, no-nonsense plantswoman” who collected my favorite plants, snowdrops, hellebores and epimediums, in her woodland garden.  Finally, I would like to grow ‘Primrose Warburg’, a rare yellow snowdrop, because I think I might be just like her when I grow up.

Galanthus ‘Merlin’ whose stock was maintained by no-nonsense plantswoman Amy Doncaster

 

Carolyn

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.), click here.

The view from my office this morning:

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Snowdrops or the Confessions of a Galanthophile

Posted in bulbs for shade, Fall Color, Shade Gardening, snowdrops with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 22, 2010 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

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 within the US.  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 interested in snowdrops, hellebores, and/or hostas.  Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

Common Snowdrop at Carolyn's Shade GardensCommon Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis

Our current snowdrop catalogue is on line here, and we are currently taking orders.

I have always loved snowdrops. I loved them so much that I set my seasonal clock by them.  When they bloomed, it was spring no matter what the calendar said. When we purchased our property in 1983, it came with thousands of common snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis. Many of my original snowdrops are on an open south-facing hill and often start to bloom at the beginning of February.  That’s when spring began for me.  When they bloomed, I would put on my warmest set of work clothes, head out to the garden, and leave the winter doldrums behind.

'Viridi-apice' snowdrops at Carolyn's Shade GardensGreen-tipped Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridi-apice’

That was before I became a galanthophile, a British word describing gardeners obsessed with snowdrops.  In my pre-galanthophile days, I thought (and I shudder to put this in writing) that once you had the double ‘Flore Pleno’, and the giant G.  elwesii, and the green-tipped ‘Viridi-apice’, and the glossy green-leafed G. woronowii, you pretty much had the snowdrop field covered.  The rest all looked the same, didn’t they?  What were all those collectors getting so excited about?

But one day, I realized the error of my ways and was seized by the galanthophile obsession to collect every snowdrop cultivar I could get my hands on.  Actually, it didn’t really happen in a day—more like years.  It started with reading the snowdrop sections in the (old) Heronswood catalogues.  Dan Hinkley was a master at plant descriptions, and I ordered a few new cultivars each year.  However, my fate as a galanthophile was sealed when I visited the garden of  famous regional plantsman Charles Cresson during snowdrop season.  Charles can make you see and appreciate the finest distinctions in plants, and he is so generous with his treasures.

Galanthus nivalis 'Blewbury Tart' at Carolyn's Shade GardensGalanthus ‘Blewbury Tart’

Now I had the wild up-facing double ‘Blewbury Tart’, and ‘Magnet’ with the fishing line stem, and the drop-pearl earring shaped ‘Atkinsii’, and  the classic ‘S. Arnott’, and the rabbit-eared ‘Sharlockii’, and …. they all looked different to me.  I only have 25 varieties though, hardly qualifying me to join the International Galanthophile Society if there is one.  Luckily (or unluckily) unusual snowdrops are rarely offered for sale in the U.S. saving me from creating a system to keep track of hundreds of snowdrop cultivars in my garden.  The British snowdrop “bible”, Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Matt Bishop, et al., describes 500 cultivars and is sadly out-of-date number-wise.

snowdrop 'Magnet' at Carolyn's Shade GardensGalanthus ‘Magnet’

But why am I talking about snowdrops in fall?  Because two of the unusual varieties I have been able to collect bloom in fall.  This wreaked havoc with my “start of spring” clock, which I had to reset to recognize the wonderful fragrance of sweet box as the beginning of spring.  But this inconvenience has been more than outweighed by allowing me to start my snowdrop season in early October with the blooming of Galanthus reginae-olgae.

October blooming Galanthus reginae-olgae, photo Charles Cresson

Galanthus reginae-olgae, a species snowdrop which has no handy common name, starts blooming in my garden in early to mid-October and continues for about four weeks.  It looks very much like the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, with a single green spot on its inner petals.  Its most significant identifying feature is its bloom time as it is the first species to flower in the garden.   It is not particularly robust in my garden, but I love it in October.

fall-blooming snowdrop 'Potter's Prelude' at Carolyn's Shade GardensNovember blooming Galanthus ‘Potter’s Prelude’

Just as G. reginae-olgae is winding down, the first blooms of Galanthus elwesii var. monostichus ‘Potter’s Prelude’ are opening in early November.  It continues to flower, sometimes into January, when the straight species, G. elwesii, takes over.  ‘Potter’s Prelude’ is a free-flowering and vigorous snowdrop in my garden with wide recurving blue-green leaves.  It has large blossoms equal in size to the best cultivars of the giant snowdrop, G. elwesii.

fall-blooming snowdrop 'Potter's Prelude' at Carolyn's Shade GardensNovember blooming Galanthus ‘Potter’s Prelude’

‘Potter’s Prelude’ was selected by Jack Potter, former curator of the Scott Arboretum, and named and registered by Charles Cresson.  Charles has generously allowed me to include ‘Potter’s Prelude’ for sale in my February snowdrop catalogue and given me enough plants to enjoy good-sized clumps in late fall in my own garden.

Carolyn

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