Freds Giant

Item: Freds Giant
Latin: Galanthus elwesii Freds Giant
Price: £8.00
SKU: KDARE
Categories: Scottish Snowdrops, Varieties of elwesii, Alphabetical list, Large or giant snowdrops,

This item is currently out of stock, or not for sale.

Fred Sutherland was the head gardener at the Cruickshank Botanical Gardens in Aberdeen. He found the original clump of this plant, in the 1950's, growing under a hedge and transplanted it to the botanical gardens; where it has thrived ever since.

Freds Giant was treated somewhat dismissively in the recent monograph; pointing out that it was of modest stature (in their experience) and implying that several strains were in circulation from the original "multi cloned clump".

Having observed the plants both here and in the Cruickshank Garden for many years, a few points are worth making:-

1. The original clump was probably not multi clonal. Clumps of bulbs (all the progeny of a single bulb) exhibit a variety of different inner petal marks; the inner petal marks can vary from year to year on a single bulb. Usually the apical mark is a good solid V, but the basal marks can vary.
2. Freds Giant is always sterile, the seed pod will initially swell but always turns yellow and shrivels or drops prematurely. One can understand the plant being self-sterile but it is obviously also highly sterile in the presence of other sources of pollen. The answer may well lie in its chromosome number.
3. Stature is a variable character in snowdrops. On its home turf in North East Scotland, Freds Giant is large, early and imposing: there are specimens in the University Herbarium between 12" and 14" in height.
4. Freds Giant occasionally produces a second scape, usually smaller than the first. This Spring (2009), one clump consisted almost entirely of plants with twin scapes. And yet, other clumps derived from previous divisions of the same clump flowered normally. This would seem to suggest that some cultural or environmental variation had encouraged the production of a second scape.

This item is currently out of stock, or not for sale.