The snow has melted in a few very sunny parts of the garden, and I was surprised to see how many snowdrops seem to have been developing under the snow. Just before the heavy snows started I took a quick tour of the garden to check the progress of the snowdrops and hellebores. In one part of the garden there were snowdrops above ground and showing white. Once the snow cleared, I could see that these plants had elongated scapes and open blooms. This year it seems that the snowdrop season will be greatly condensed: the earlies (here that means the winter blooming forms of Galanthus elwesii) will be blooming with the mid-season sorts (which are typically late winter bloomers). And I think that the long-prolonged snow cover has taught me a snowdrop lesson. For decades there has been a plant of one of the Greatorex double-flowered snowdrops in this garden. For nearly twenty years this plant struggled simply to grow: it never increased, nor did it bloom. Then several years things changed: it began to divide and eventually it began to bloom. The flowers however were a disappointment: they were always misshapen and had a starved, pinched look to them. While quickly surveying the garden yesterday, I noticed a clump of snowdrops in full bloom at the spot where this formerly balky plant grows. I couldn’t believe my eyes: could this really be the same plant? It was. And the flowers for once are handsome, full doubles with neatly imbricated segments. The conclusion I draw from this is that this plant needs a long cold season to develop properly. Our mercurial weather will not provide that on an annual basis, so I’m enjoying these plants while I can. I have not finished searching old acquisition records, but so far the names Ophelia and Desdemona have turned up. My memory says it’s ‘Ophelia’, but at this point that’s little better than a guess. Here’s a view of the plant; let me know if it looks familiar to you: http://jimmckenney.com/one_of_the_greatorex_snowdr… 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/