Snowdrops with yellow on the outer petals

[Diane Whitehead]

If we cross an all-over green with a yellow-marked, might we develop an all-over yellow?

[Hagen Engelmann]

Diane, if you could find the right parents?!?!?!

[Alan_b]

I'm sure it's only a matter of time, Diane.  But how long it will take is something I really don't know.

[johnw]

Dianne & Hagen  - Which leads to the starter question: Which yellow snowdrop has the highest percentage of yellow surface area on both inners and outers?  Perhaps time for another thread as this one is getting rather long and now off topic....

johnw - close to 2" of rain overnight making for close to 6.5" in a week...........

[Diane Whitehead]

I don't know of any with yellow on the outers.

[Alan_b]

Which yellow snowdrop has the highest percentage of yellow surface area on both inners and outers?  Perhaps time for another thread ....

The two best-publised snowdrops with yellow on the outers are:
G. nivalis 'Ecusson d'Or' which you can see depicted here: http://www.judyssnowdrops.co.uk/Plant_Profiles/nivalis/ecusson_d_or/ecusson_d_or.htm .  This was a chance find on a roadside verge (spotted from a moving car!).
G. plicatus 'Golden Fleece' which Joe Sharman achieved by cross-breeding 'Trym' with a yellow snowdrop (over several generations as the first generation were all green).  You can see that here http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12420.msg316173#msg316173 although the picture only shows the outer petals.

AFAIK those are the only two so far.  'Golden Fleece' wins on the amount of yellow coverage. 

[Alan_b]

No, I'm wrong; there is another one called 'Golden Chalice' which is similar to 'Golden Fleece' but with a green ovary.

[SnowClock]

Colin Mason is auctioning a Galanthus nivalis "Goldcrest" on Ebay at the moment. According to the description, it has yellow tips on the outer segments "if the bulb is left undisturbed": http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Galanthus-nivalis-Goldcrest-Exquisite-Sandersii-gp-snowdrop-/261699873847?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item3cee872c37

And there is Gerhard Raschun's Galanthus nivalis "Carinthian Summer": http://www.cypripedium.at/product_27.html

[Brian Ellis]

If we cross an all-over green with a yellow-marked, might we develop an all-over yellow?

Well here's your starter for ten.  Joe crossed Trym with Wendy's Gold and got green seedlings.  Those were crossed with another yellow plicate and that made a yellowish Trym...

Now it's down to you

[Maggi Young]

I remember when there was so much excitement about the price that Ecusson d'Or was fetching - we have many photos of it in the  forum - here are a few nice shots, to show what the plant is , for those not sure :
    
 Hagen's photo

 
Ollie Howes' photo, via Mark S.

 
from The late Günter Waldorf in 2009- his first flower on this plant

[Alan_b]

I remember when there was so much excitement about the price that Ecusson d'Or was fetching

Yes, in fact this is the only one of the snowdrops mentioned that is at all available for purchase.  Okay, you can bid for 'Goldcrest' on eBay but it is so rarely offered I suspect it will fetch a lot of money.

Those are lovely pictures of 'Ecusson d'Or', Maggi, but the first time I saw it in reality I was not at all impressed.  I presume it is one of those that needs to settle before it looks its best. 

[Alan_b]

Joe crossed Trym with Wendy's Gold and got green seedlings.  Those were crossed with another yellow plicate and that made a yellowish Trym...

... which he has named 'Golden Fleece'.

Also Anne Wright crossed plicatus 'Wendy's Gold' with a yellow nivalis and got a range of yellow hybrids.

So 'Wendy's Gold' x 'Green Tear' and any virescent progeny back-crossed with a yellow snowdrop might do the trick to create a lutescent snowdrop.  That's why I think it will happen in time.

[ruben]

This is Galanthus nivalis 'Ecusson d'or' in my garden last year. It a very good grower for me.

[Maggi Young]

There are quite a few photos in the Forum where Ecusson d'Or is not showing good yellow outers  - the pix here are of more defined examples.

 Sadly it seems to me  that a lot of snowdrop markings are transient or lacking in all manner of situations 



N. B. I remind new  readers that there are other threads in the forum from previous years on the matter of yellow drops - so do have a good look around via the search button ( fourth from the left in the line of "buttons" near the top of the page) to see what else has been posted. 

[SnowClock]

My Galanthus elwesii "Carolyn Elwes" has small yellow dots on the outers, too. I made this photo in February 2013.