John Grimshaw’s asseverations on the topic of moving snowdrops, which I trust were made with the best of intentions, certainly run counter to a lifetime of my experiences as a backyard snowdrop grower. Surely I’m not the only one to send off a visitor with a freshly dug clump in bloom, or to host visitors bearing recently dug blooming plants from their garden. And surely those plants were not the only ones in the history of the cultivation of snowdrops which didn’t miss a beat and went on to thrive and bloom in their new homes. Were they as floriferous when they bloomed the next year as they might have been had they been moved when dormant? Perhaps not, but how many home gardeners look at it that way? My take on this is that John’s advice, although doubtless good advice to the commercial grower, is of little real relevance to the home grower. I’ll concede that plants moved while in full growth do experience some setback; the question is, is it a horticulturally significant setback? My experience in a lifetime of moving snowdrops in my home garden says it is not. To the person running a snowdrop production facility, where every gram of bulb represents potential profit, perhaps it is. Nor do I have any trouble understanding why a commercial grower would feel umbrage at the expectation that plants be dug in the green. It’s a mess, such plants are heavier than dormant bulbs, and the foliage is apt to turn into a slimy goop during long transit. The problem as I see it is not that plants dug in the green do not do well; the problem is that growers subjected to the expectation that they provide plants in the green are seriously inconvenienced. At this point I’m tempted to ask if there is any formal data to back the various claims being made. I’m running a home garden, not an agricultural experiment station. I know what I’ve experienced, and what I’ve experienced suggests that digging snowdrops in the green does not harm the plants in a significant way. But I’m not in the business of selling snowdrops and shipping them abroad. I don’t answer to a possibly misinformed public, to a public which sometimes lacks common gardening sense and has unreasonable expectations. My snowdrops go to good homes, not to the highest bidder. I’m in complete agreement with John in preferring that snowdrops be moved when dormant. But to promote without exception the moving of plants in the dormant state over those still growing overlooks the long and sad history of snowdrop marketing here in North America. Some snowdrops respond better to the processes which put them in a dormant state under commercial conditions. As a youngster, I quickly learned that Galanthus elwesii purchased as dry bulbs from the bulb bins of local dealers in the autumn almost always went on to bloom well and prosper. And just as certainly I learned that bulbs of the common snowdrop, especially in its double-flowered form, gave a very poor showing indeed – if they grew at all. In other words, if by dormant bulbs one means bulbs during the months of June to September in the Northern Hemisphere which have naturally entered dormancy and are being sent out by a responsible grower, then I’m all for it. If I were working as the buyer for a bulb broker, and if, when visiting the growing fields, he offered to dig the snowdrops blooming at that time for me immediately, of course I would refuse the offer. But if I’m visiting a friend’s garden and friend puts spade to loam and says “Here, I want you to try this”, you had better believe that I will not stand on ceremony and upbraid him for poor horticultural practice! I’m convinced that the experienced grower can make either way - dormant or in the green - work successfully, And my experience has also shown me that those who do not know what they are doing can make either approach fail. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/