Thank you for all the site recommendations! I've only bookmarked Crocus so I get a reminder of when they become available, rather than specifically to get them from them. I assume that they will all be available at about the same time. I am not in the least opposed to shopping around. My brother-in-law once referred to me as a 'sophisticated shopper' after an afternoon out with me, so I shall enjoy the hunt very much!
I have hardy geraniums in a different part of the garden and they do, indeed take over and smother everything, so I have my eye on a white version to use here. They get a bit much, though, and they are not evergreen, so I don't want to use them exclusively.
As to whether or not the snowdrops will survive there, I think it's a gamble I'll have to take. Obviously, because there is a huge beech tree there, it's going to be dry, but it's maybe a bit more complicated than that. I live in Manchester, so there's no shortage of rain haha, but the mat of vinca was so thick and dense after 25 years that it was almost like a waterproof tarpaulin, and I'm interested to see what happens to the site when there is nothing there to prevent what water there is from reaching the ground.
I had close to 100% success with inexpensive dry snowdrop bulbs planted 4 or so to a smallish pot last autumn, then planted out in bud in early spring (plain old single Galanthus nivalis from J. Parkers Wholesale). Maybe I was lucky, or maybe the common species is easier than the more special types. Yet to see whether they reappear next year, but some of the bulbs are still there because I accidentally unearthed a few while planting the Brunnera (I poked them back in, hopefully no harm done).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I am greatly encouraged! I actually prefer the bog standard ordinary snowdrop. Perhaps the answer is to plant a large number in a variety of different ways and places and try to learn what works and what doesn't in our garden. And try to make the squirrels happy enough to avoid them by not shooing them off the birds' peanut feeder.
I have a pretty much evergreen white Geranium macrorrhizum. It speads happily but has so far been easy to remove when I don't want it, survives in full scorching sun and in shade, and is altogether a very useful plant.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
I also have a LOT of problems with squirrels, but I don't think they've ever pulled up a snowdrop I've planted 'in the green'. That may just be luck, but given all the other shenanigans they inflict on me and my plants, I'll take it.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
That looks nice. Ours are similar but very, very pale pink, and they are certainly easy to remove if necessary. You can just pick ours up off the ground, as they don't appear to be attached to the earth at all! Wondering if there would be a nightmare scenario of the vinca matting up below and the geraniums floating ethereally above it!
That was my thinking about green snowdrops also, although they have dug up similarly sized plug plants, which I was ignorant enough to put straight into the ground before I learned better.
No, you can't call an enemy plant invasive if all you have to do is pick it up. They would be pretty easy to defeat in an all-out war situation. (I'm sounding pretty like Baldrick there, I suspect.)
Have followed this thread with interest. Please do keep us informed of what you eventually do with your blank canvas @CostumedVole. I have a vinca minor in a shady area between a shrub and a fence. It only went in last year, after I cleared (ha!) the area of ground elder so I want it to be more warlike.
Oh, thank you for your interest! Here's the space in the brief moment of time before it all explodes again. All suggestions gratefully received. And here is what it was like when I was about half way through. I wish I'd taken a photo before I started, but it was just too painful to look at. It looks smaller than it really is on this pic. It's 7.6m x 3.25m, which is a lot when it's covered in vinca...
I guess ground elder is even worse than vinca, so you have my sympathy for sure. From experience, though, I'd say vinca was more than up to the challenge. I guess I'm being unfair on the vinca because it was my own neglect that allowed it to get so bad in the first place. I'd have felt better about it if it hadn't stopped flowering. There's Rose of Sharon in there, too, and Crocosmia - all legacies of the previous owner and the fashions of more than 25 years ago, and fiendishly hard to eradicate. I hate them too. (The plants, not the previous owners. I only met them once.) Anyway, it'll soon be a woodland garden, and much improved when I've sorted the path and the planters out. The fern in the pot isn't a permanent feature and the planters are only recently emptied. I will post a photo when it is done which, given my usual impatience, will probably be about next week, despite my intention of waiting until spring...
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I have hardy geraniums in a different part of the garden and they do, indeed take over and smother everything, so I have my eye on a white version to use here. They get a bit much, though, and they are not evergreen, so I don't want to use them exclusively.
As to whether or not the snowdrops will survive there, I think it's a gamble I'll have to take. Obviously, because there is a huge beech tree there, it's going to be dry, but it's maybe a bit more complicated than that. I live in Manchester, so there's no shortage of rain haha, but the mat of vinca was so thick and dense after 25 years that it was almost like a waterproof tarpaulin, and I'm interested to see what happens to the site when there is nothing there to prevent what water there is from reaching the ground.
That was my thinking about green snowdrops also, although they have dug up similarly sized plug plants, which I was ignorant enough to put straight into the ground before I learned better.
And here is what it was like when I was about half way through. I wish I'd taken a photo before I started, but it was just too painful to look at. It looks smaller than it really is on this pic. It's 7.6m x 3.25m, which is a lot when it's covered in vinca...
I guess ground elder is even worse than vinca, so you have my sympathy for sure. From experience, though, I'd say vinca was more than up to the challenge. I guess I'm being unfair on the vinca because it was my own neglect that allowed it to get so bad in the first place. I'd have felt better about it if it hadn't stopped flowering. There's Rose of Sharon in there, too, and Crocosmia - all legacies of the previous owner and the fashions of more than 25 years ago, and fiendishly hard to eradicate. I hate them too. (The plants, not the previous owners. I only met them once.) Anyway, it'll soon be a woodland garden, and much improved when I've sorted the path and the planters out. The fern in the pot isn't a permanent feature and the planters are only recently emptied. I will post a photo when it is done which, given my usual impatience, will probably be about next week, despite my intention of waiting until spring...