SNOWDROPS. 



187 



Webster tells me that peat has quite a magical effect on Snow- 

 drops, but I have not tried it. My ideal soil for Snowdrops in 

 general would be half good sweet yellow loam and almost half 

 unsifted river-grit, and a little leaf-mould. The situation I should 

 choose would be a gently sloping bank, more or less shaded by 

 trees whose roots were allowed to wander freely among the Snow- 

 drops. I believe that all bulbs are healthier when planted amongst 

 active roots than in ordinary beds. When the bulbs are at rest 

 it is very essential that the soil should be kept sweet by the 

 activity of other roots. We too often lose sight of this fact. I 

 think the autumnal-flowering Snowdrops should be treated as 

 alpines. All my best Snowdrops are grown under trees, the soil 

 being quite full of their roots. I do not use manure for them. In 

 this same situation the white Daffodils do well, and even Nar. 

 pallidas pr&cox seems happy, and the delicate little N. cycla- 

 mineus is sending up its buds for the third or fourth time. Here, 

 too, the Irises of the reticulata group — sophenensis , histrioides, 

 Kolpakoivshiana, and Krelagei — grow freely. The wonderful 

 Iris Bosenbachiana, planted in 1888, has again just opened its 

 beautiful flowers. I. Histrio I cannot manage. The only draw- 

 back to my situation for these spring gems is the soiling of the 

 flowers from the droppings of the trees. I should mention that 

 the climate is so trying that I cannot grow such hardy plants as 

 Primroses, Pinks, Daisies, &c. All these disappear after a season 

 or two. 



I move most of my Snowdrops when in full flower, and do not 

 find they are injured by it in any way. This is also the best time 

 for moving Leucojtim vemum. 



I have noticed that the more green colour there is in any 

 Snowdrop the more freely it grows and the more rapidly it in- 

 creases, whilst the absence of green, or the substitution of yellow 

 for the green, makes the plant delicate and slow of increase. G. 

 Scharlokii, G. poculiformis, and G. lutescens illustrate this point. 



In very frosty weather, when the young growth of Snowdrops 

 appears to be shrivelled and dried up, I have an idea that the 

 vital juices of the plant are instinctively drawn into the bulb, 

 which acts as a reservoir. If the juices were left in the young 

 leaves, would they not become frozen, and so destroy the tissues 

 of the plant ? 



When lifting Snowdrops which are in full flower, I have often 



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