On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 12:12:54 GMT, Janet Baraclough wrote:

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

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.

In the same garden, I planted 50 Lv in 1988; only about 10 of them
survived. They flowered but didn't seem to increase so never made a show
worth having. The ones that lived, were planted in a *very* soggy bit of
a wooded area. I think you are right, they are very sensitive to dry
conditions.

The ones that have survived to flower and multiply actually get
pretty dry in summer. This year, for the first time, they
actually put on something of a show in their own quiet way -- I
suspect that my fall application of fertilizer in 2001 and 2002
has helped them a great deal.

A good friend here spends a lot of time in Czechia, and her
snapshots show L.V. thriving there. But they also show the
limestone strata of the Czech bedrock. Perhaps LV has a lime
requirement not satisfied in my acid soil.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada