This is very helpful info - thank you so much. It sounds like I'll have to wait another season to have snowdrops of my own coming up, but I'm glad to know the right way to go about it. I'll be on the lookout in March for sellers of fresh snowdrops.

Garden centers here sell potted ones in bloom during the flowering season. However these are almost certainly planted as dried bulbs initially, cost more than the dried bulbs by themselves. If it were me I would buy and plant dried bulbs now, see what happens. Frankly I'd be surprised if most of them don't come up, or you don't at least get a good start on a planting this way.

All good advice but I would be surprised (and a little jealous) if you were able to find snowdrops for sale in the spring -either in growth or in bloom.

Unless you can find a friend with a few to share (start asking now) your best bet will be to try the online dry bulbs and hope for the best. Don't bother with the common (galanthus nivalis), I've never had them survive, try the giant (g elwesii) or g. Woronowii.... That last one might be labeled correctly but is often just more g elwesii, which is a good thing unless you really really want the other one.

last year or the year before Brent and Becky's offered the common snowdrop in growth in spring via their Facebook page, other than that only the expensive ones are usually offered in the green here in the US and you need to pre order around January!

Absolutely - I planted 250 elwesii last year and had a decent showing - enough to start a colony at any rate. As with most things horticultural, we usually have options so can plan on all fronts - seed, dried bulbs, fresh containerised bulbs and even propagation of named and special varieties (the fun of twin scaling). I would always suggest action now...and more action later.

In the UK, planting 'in the green' has become a well known method of planting many of the smaller bulbs - aconites (eranthis) and snowdrops in particular, but also ipheon, crocus and so on. Our long, damp springs makes this method highly advantageous although shipping can be...eventful.

Having planted multiple hundreds of common spring bulbs in my lifetime, I assumed planting snowdrops would be exactly the same process. It wasn't! Tried for a couple of years with the dried bulbs offered by nurseries in my area (all of which offer a great array of spring blooming bulbs of all types). Never saw a sign of them again. After reading up on them and finding the advice for planting "in the green", I tried that, as offering already growing bulbs in small pots in spring here has become a popular trend. Success!!

Why this works so much better at initially establishing a colony of snowdrops, I have no idea - somebody started them from bulbs to get to that point!! But it does work and works well so I would encourage you to try it if you see them available. I'm not sure I'd resort to mail order to do so however........shipping already growing bulbs across the country seems risky to me :-)

I have to admit that I now do most of my other spring bulbs in this manner. Fall tends to be one of my busier seasons and the weather can be iffy and I often don't get around promptly to bulb planting at the proper time. So I purchase them already started in spring and reward myself with instant gratification!!

I've had good luck with galanthus elwesii from Brent and Becky's, Van Egelen, or Scheepers and even garden cenrters. I'm going to guess most places will offer decent bulbs as long as they're elwesii.

I've never had any luck with galanthus nivalis dry, and that's from many sources. If they do manage to come up they often don't make it to the next year for some reason. I did buy some named nivalis varieties from Brent and Becky, and 'Magnet' did very well. The others did not.

I have bought dry bulbs from small specialty nurseries and they have all done well. They dig and ship during the summer, and the bulbs are planted when you get them so they're only out of the ground for a few weeks. I think once dried, they're tough to re-start.

Can you tell I'm a little into snowdrops? I'll try and stop now lol

Thanks for the info!! I have ordered some elwesii from Cheepers as a first step. While there I ordered some Allium varieties to put around my fruit trees. Looking forward to next year already!

I had good luck ordering from K van Bourgandien last year. I bought g. nivalis and g. flore plena from them. All the snowdrops that I ordered from them grew and about 80% bloomed. The ones that they sell as galanthus nivalis are actually galanthus woronowii, I believe.

Blooms from galanthus flore plena

Blooms from g. nivalis but maybe g. woronowii due to their glossy foliage

Lovely, thanks!

OK - boasting moment!

Has anyone (Katob?) heard of the Greatorex doubles - Hippolyte, Aphrodite etc? They are a hybrid of nivalis and plicanthus, larger in all parts than nivalis Flore Pleno. Anyway, Heyrick Greatorex was was a deeply odd person - living in an old railway carriage in deepest rural Norfolk in the 1950s, coincidentally less than a mile from my woodlands. They have the deep green slightly wavy leaves of plicanthus and make a terrific show in the landscape. We bought the woods in November and did not see the property again until February/March...when, cutting back the rampant brambles, we were utterly astounded to see carpets of white double snowdrops along the entire edge of our woods. I assume ants were responsible for carrying seed through the linking woodland between Brundall Gardens (Greatorex's home) and our wood since the boundaries are carpeted in thick clumps of bulbs. The woodland was planted in poplar in 1947 and the bulbs are slowly creeping inwards to the centre clearing...now helped by division and transplanting. Since these bulbs are rarely found in commerce and sell for eye-watering prices (although nothing like the ludicrous sums that some bulbs fetch), I have often considered them a potential investment for the offspring.

It sounds like you hit the lottery! I have seen prices of certain snowdrops in the US going for over $50. Will you sell them? Hope someday, they will reach the US. Wow, I would love for my snow drops to naturalize. I would really like to add the plicanthus to my garden hopefully next spring so that I can get a diverse gene pool for pollination.

The weird world of hard-core galanthophiles is...quite astonishing - my local nursery, Monksilver, is run by one such who recently sold a bulb for over $500. Yep, I kid you not. My own eldest son thought little of paying out $30 for a single bulb of 'Primrose Warburg' - one of those with a yellow receptacle like 'Wendy's Gold (incidentally 'discovered' by the same nursery-owner, Joe Sharman). Anyway, regarding selling them - probably not, since the naming of bulbs depends on the breed lineage, vegetative propagation and so forth...so I could only claim that mine were related to the Greatorex doubles...not that this really concerns me one whit. The only criteria which counts for me is garden worthiness.

Oddly, I rarely go for doubled blooms in anything, invariably preferring the single form but double snowdrops do have terrific substance, really showing well in mass plantings. I have a couple of snowdrop books with numerous illustrations of named this and that - the differences are truly minute - there are some with the purest white form with no green markings...which I consider to be perfect in their ethereal simplicity...but I doubt I would be persuaded to pay £££ for them. Or wish to collect numerous, ever so slightly different forms. I consider myself something of a plant collector but have always failed to get that collecting bug regarding single specific things like hostas. How many basically green leafy plants can anyone possibly want? Half a dozen maybe...but dozens? hundreds? Even the rose mania wore off after the first 80 or so...and they have a massive range of types, colours, even species.

If they look as nice and perform as well as you have seen them, it will be a shame if you do not market them for sale. I know there are many people who are really into snowdrops, Me for one! LOL If you do have seeds from these snowdrops for sale or gift, please think of me. I would love to grow them.

I totally agree with you about hostas. Although I appreciate the variations and patterns on them, I think 20 is about enough for me. But it is to each his own with regards to plant collecting.

Try as hard as I can I just can't ignore this thread. Sorry Steve, don't mean to go on and on but since you mentioned ordering snowdrops I've been looking and thinking and when a friend didn't step in and say it was a ridiculous idea (she was non-committal) I snapped and ordered a few.

It's a little embarrassing since I have a few already and ordered more than I needed. Oh well, water under the bridge and such, and in my defense with things all costing as much as they do these days it's still a remarkably cheap vice.

Campanula I've been waiting at least two years to see a few of your woodland snowdrop photos, so not to sound stalker-ish but I did notice you mentioning it elsewhere and did have a slight tinge of jealousy run through the veins. I bet with the clearing you've done they are going from strength to strength each spring as they enjoy more space and sunlight. Perhaps someday you can lure people out to your woods for an open snowdrop day and show off your treasures. I bet many will be excited by the Greatorex connection.

I'll admit to being in step with your son as far as snowdrop purchases go, and Primrose Warburg is worth it, it's a special one and has done very well for me.

Karen, $50 a bulb isn't even as high as they go here in the US. I've seen them well over the $100 mark. Here's a screen shot I took of another one of Joe Sharman's from 2015. Prior to Brexit this would convert to about $2000 US :)

Noooo I just spent ages finding the only 2 (awful) photos, even more ages attempting to download them, did so (eventually) then some Houzz rubbish popped up which I couldn't escape from and lost all my post. Exhausted, off to bed. Will attempt again tomorrow (where all will be clear why I have so few photos - squinting uselessly on a hopeful autofocus!).

I am staggered - £1,300+. I hear Japanese hepaticas are catching up though. Madness. I had been feeling a bit guilty at paying over £5 each for 5 tiny tulipa sprengeri bulbs.

Even more shamefully, I haven't actually done hardly any clearing where the snowdrops are - it is a bramble infested jungle...which is why the snowdrops survived unmolested for so long...including by me.

Wow, that would be the most expensive plant that I have ever known . Who has that kind of cash to buy those snowdrops? I have to hit the lottery to afford that sort of indulgence or as Camp said it, "Madness." I don't know if I can bring myself to shell out over $50 for a yellow snowdrop.

>Who has that kind of cash to buy those snowdrops?<

Individuals spend millions for single paintings, strands of jewelry and so on. Sometimes buying from sources who did not acquire them legally.

I guess if you are collector or a propagator, it makes sense to invest in something like that. For an average gardener, it is too much risk to buy something over $1000 and have it grown outside subject to the elements. You just don't know if the plant will make it and multiply or die within a year due to unforeseen weather event.

There have been a few well publicized snowdrop thefts, that's one of the problems with the high prices, also the second highest price paid for a snowdrop (just over $1,000) turned out to be a problem when it nearly died out on the new owner.

The other thing is that snowdrops keep multiplying and if you're the greedy type who likes to hold onto your hundred dollar plant it eventually becomes far less impressive when everyone has one growing in their yard.

The high prices are fun to watch but I traded with a friend for my first yellow snowdrop and within a few years am able to pass it on further. Generosity can be fun too :)

Oh god, assuming I can get these pics up it will be embarrassing next to your sharp, clear images, Katob (I fully agree about the joys of sharing).

Yep, regarding thefts, the remains of Greatorex's 'estate' is known as 'snowdrop acre' and is both well guarded and also somewhat secretive. Ants are attracted to the eliosomes (fatty lipids which feed the developing plantlet) in snowdrop seeds and carry them a considerable distance (which is how my wood was colonised - that and almost 50 years of utter neglect when the market dropped out of matchwood (poplar).

I generally go to Monksilver's 'Spring Thing' (it is less than 6miles from me) where rare snowdrops are traded. Although most of the really pricey stuff is sold online, it is still quite amusing to watch the sharp elbows of galanthophiles. At the last one (where my son had a little splurge - I think he also bought a 'Grumpy' or 'Dumpy'?? - I admit to coming home with hardy geraniums and a couple of pulmonarias.

I am not much of a one for zooming in to admire a single perfect bloom - it's quantity rather than quality for me (especially with bulbs), I am afraid... I want to see a thousand messy rambling roses in glorious profusion and have zero interest in a single hybrid tea.

What a beautiful clump! THe flower looks so unique with the green specks on the unundersides of the petals. Is it a large flower>? It looks rather large for a snowdrop.

Campanula - they look an awful lot like the clumps of double snowdrops in my wood. What distinguishes them from the old fashioned double G nivalis? I had always assumed they came from people fly tipping garden rubbish - which is why I also have an assortment of odd Narcissus and some peculiar coloured primroses too. This was taken in January and they aren't fully open yet. Note snail holes and rotting medlars as these are some I moved to the garden.

The leaf colour is less glaucous. Some of them have a wavy edge too...but in truth, my local farmer told me about the Greatorex link. To my shame, I didn't even get to see them the first year (brambles) and even now, there are still parts of the wood I have not managed to get to. A fearsome ant stretch along the sunniest edge (annoyingly) which I avoid after being sprayed...although there are at least 2 woodpeckers who loiter).There is a public footpath (actually a filthy muddy path) between Postwick and Brundall which has clumps of snowdrops all along the length and also has continuous (very wet and wild) woodland fronting the Yare so I assumed it was more of a gradual expansion...although there are more to be seen on the western (furthest) side of my wood which does face along a farm road...while the eastern side has no road access at all and the only clumps are practically in the drainage ditch...so the garden rubbish thing could be responsible. I will make an effort to take some pics this next season- (they do have a bit of variation (if you look hard) although all are doubles.

Left up to me, I would not have chosen doubles at all but I have been pleased to see how long they last and the overall effect in the landscape.

I have noticed around here too that Snowdrops seem to like very wet land along rivers. I had always assumed bulbs got swept along the banks when the rivers rose. I wouldn't pick doubles either but they seem so tough and brave appearing out of the brambles I can't help but like them.

I used to look down on the double snowdrops as well, but then someone pointed out that they do show up much better in the garden and also seem to last longer, two things which are hard to thumb your nose at, especially if you have a woodland to fill! -and what's this woodland which floral speaks of? Does everyone have a woodland now? Maybe I need a woodland... it wouldn't be the worst thing to have!

The 'fly tipping' theory may be quite legitimate. From what I understand double snowdrops cannot produce seed which is why in the picture the rounded ovary part at the top of the flower is small and shrunken when compared to the rounded shape of a plain single flower. They are pollen fertile though, and the doubling seems to be dominant so a single pollinated with double pollen produces double flowered seedlings.... too much? I think doubles are usually spread around by animals digging or other soil disturbances.

Oh and I'm thrilled to finally see some of the snowdrop wood, it's great to see how well they are doing and how well they will likely continue to do whether you clear brambles this year or next or in ten years. You of course need to add eranthis in with the snowdrops and cyclamen coum in the better drainage areas. Too cliché? I don't think you'll care when the flowers open... sorry if my jealousy over your woodland is making me sound controlling...

The simple primrose vulgaris has been my first coloniser of choice...along with wood anemones. It is still a bit wild and woolly for cyclamen...several clumps simply vanish from view unless I ruffle through leaf piles...but in my little 'garden' patch near the horsebox, for sure. And martagons - my most expensive splurge and long-term seeding plan.

Flora was a woodland pioneer - we are just Johnny come latelys...but our paths have converged - going from a minuscule home garden...to an allotment and finally, branching out (ahem) to a patch of woodland - usually on sale for a fraction of the cost of agricultural land.

I'm guessing the woodland is cheaper as a result of use restrictions? Here it's more of a you own it you can build kind of area. Even if that means blasting half a mountain and bulldozing George washingtons birthplace... Ok maybe exaggerating.

i really want a woodland now.

UPDATE:

I am so glad I found this thread as I was musing over the 'upgrade' to the double form. Thanks.

Jaquenetta, one of the Greatorex doubles, just getting ready to bloom.

Can you post a pic of this snowdrop fully opened?