By Victoria Plum
If you weren’t at the Reepham & District Gardening Club meeting in February you missed a treat!
Our speaker was Guy Barker, the naked gardener, and before you ask, no he wasn’t, although the town hall was pleasantly warm for the event.
Do you remember Jamie Oliver, the naked chef, who styled himself in that way to show the straightforward nature of his approach? Guy has a similar approach.
Neatly edged flower beds and perfectly striped mown lawns are not for him; a more natural look is what he likes.
His lively, humorous and interested enthusiasm won us over as he entertained us with snowdrop sagas.
Photo: Tina Sutton
I always thought a snowdrop was just a snowdrop but a whole world of galanthophilia was opened up to us, and we gasped at the prices: “S. Arnott” at £5 per bulb, “Primrose Warburg” at £7 per bulb and (an “immortal” as named after someone specific) with yellow flowers, “Turncoat” at £50 per bulb.
“Double Charmer” is available for £20 a pot, while “Moby Dick” is a bit more at £50 per bulb.
Some snowdrops are infertile, so can only reproduce by bulb formation. Natural hybrids can emerge and if they are pretty or scented, and rare, they soon become sought after.
“Morgana” will cost £300 per bulb, but these are all topped by “Golden Fleece”, which took 18 years to breed and costs (are you sitting down?) £1,850 per bulb!
So if you see a figure in camouflage shuffling about in a lonely churchyard, looking furtive, it just might be me looking for a snowdrop with an extra long spathe or unusual green-splashed markings, hoping to make my fortune.
Snowdrops should be moved “in the green”, but Guy told us that later is best, when the green has pretty well died down, so the plant is dormant or near dormant.
A useful tip, if you are short of nettles for companion planting, is to let your snowdrops be covered with grass, weeds, etc., through most of the year because that will confuse the Narcissus bulb fly which is likely to burrow down near to your bulbs to allow its larvae to consume the bulb from the inside out, leaving only a husk − disappointing if the bulb is one you have just paid £1,850 for.
Join us on Tuesday 19 March at 7.30 pm for Kathy Gray’s talk on “Plant Hunters”; she will start with the Tradescants. Several years ago I visited a garden in Walberswick, Suffolk, with links to that family where I won a Clematis montana as a raffle prize.
There is always a raffle at the gardening club meeting; tea, coffee and homemade cake and biscuits are also available.