Thread: Snowdrops
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Old 08-01-2004, 05:44 PM
Janet Baraclough ..
 
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Default Snowdrops

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The message
from Christopher Norton contains these words:

The message
from Jaques d'Alltrades contains
these words:


Some of the woodland round here are carpeted with snowdrops, and later,
with bluebells (Bucket type).


Woodland! I should be so lucky. Our recently planted wood has possibly
not been underplanted yet. We dont have too many woodlands as you know.
The local church yard has a fantastic display of Bluebells tho once it
comes.


Now's the time to start underplanting your new woodland. Don't wait
until the canopy closes over, you're just losing time :-). Here's what I
did with mine.

If you can beg clumps of snowdrops in the green, divide them into
single bulbs..even the tiny ones.. and keep the root ends in a pot of
water while you work. A fist sized clump will yield scores of bulbs.
Plant them between 6" and 12" apart in uneven drifts under the trees. A
sharp knife is extremely useful for the job as you can quickly make
hundreds of slits in the soil, drop in a bulb (deep is good, with
snowdrops) and close the slit with your foot. They will clump up within
a couple of years into a good flower display; keep digging up and
dividing a few clumps every year.

The easiest and most effective way to make a bluebell woodland carpet,
is by scattering freshly collected seed as soon as it's ripe (July, here
in Scotland).Anyone nearby who has a bluebell colony will normally give
consent for this; make sure the source is the native bluebell and not
the stiff Spanish one. Just mix it with some sand or old potting compost
to make it go further, and scatter it thinly wherever you want
bluebells. You don't need to prepare the area in any way or cover the
seeds; bluebells will germinate in weedy soil, grass etc, and pull
themselves down into the soil by their own roots. In the first spring
they germinate like grass; a few flowers will appear in the third year.
From then on, your colony is producing seed which you can use to extend
it.

Red campion and foxgloves are very easily naturalised the same way.
Foxgloves are biennial, so you need to scatter seed two years running to
obtain flowering continuity in the early years.

If you like celandines (I do) they can easily be spread by divided
roots, the new plants will seed freely so make sure you really want
them.

Janet.