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

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

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

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

The spring snowflake, /Leucojum vernum/, a very close relative to
the snowdrop, is much worse about being dried out. I've planted
roughly two hundred bulbs of it over the last fifteen years but
only a very few have survived and established themselves. Close
observation of the survivors leads me to think that L.v. bulbs
should first be rehydrated by soaking in water after reception
(they usually in a flabby when you get them), and then planted
quite deep. The bulbs, though small, have quite long necks. I
suspect that overly-shallow planting is one of the causes of my
many failures.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada