The Rutland Group of the Hardy Plant Society met last week via Zoom due to Covid restrictions and local virus conditions. The Group will also hold our February lecture via Zoom and then hopefully return to our indoor venue, where we can enjoy meeting the speakers and socialising again. It is also hoped that garden visits and our Annual Plant Fair will be part of the summer programme.
Our January speaker was well known horticulturist Jim Almond who took as his topic ‘Snowdrops and Other Winter Joys’. His enthusiasm really spilled over to his audience and whetted our appetites with the wonderful array of flowers that will soon be brightening our days. His love and expertise of snowdrops certainly shone through at the beginning of his lecture. If snowdrops are happy they will spread and he encourages us to give them to friends, propagate when the clump is big enough and to take photographs of them to remind us of their glorious show. Snowdrops in churchyards were a symbol of hope. Some started flowering in December while others waited to March. Dependable snowdrops included the early flowering ‘Barnes’ which sometimes flowers in November and is cheap to buy! ‘Augustus’ and ‘Sam Arnott’ are easy and reliable. ‘Magnet’ is different with a dangling stem. He enticed us with so many images before going on to the yellow marked ones including ‘Wendy’s Gold’ and ‘Madeline’. Some of the unusual ones covered were ‘Trym’ where the outer petals match the inner ones, ‘Flight of fancy’ where the outer petals curl upwards and ‘Irish Green’ with its green strip down the outer segments. Jim then concentrated on the many doubles including, ‘Godfrey Owen’ and ‘Ophelia’.
Early flowering perennials to accompany the snowdrops included the heavily scented ‘Sarcocca confusa’, ‘Clematis cirrhosa’ with its masses of flowers, including ‘Freckles’ with its red dots and the old and reliable favourite ‘Daphne Jaqueline Postill’ with its far reaching perfume.
Other dwarf bulbs shown included many varieties of crocus of which the black tipped ‘Bowles Pictus’ was quite unusual and sieberi Tricolor ‘Firefly’ was a good clump former. Iris reticulata was another bulb that Jim propagates and some favourites like ‘Harmony’, ‘Springtime’ and ‘Kathryn Hodgkins’ were highlighted.
So many charming and easily obtained bulbs were featured and members left the Zoom meeting with a huge list of Cyclamen, Chynoxinas, Narcissus and other bulbs too numerous to mention here that would reward gardeners in the spring.
This was an excellent lecture given by an expert in the field and we were left with inspiration and looking forward to the next few months in our gardens when these lovely dwarf bulbs show themselves off and give us cheer.
All gardeners are welcome to join the Hardy Plant Society and our local Rutland Group and information can be found on our website. https://hpsrutland.webador.co.ok