An Iowa Garden

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The snowdrop 'Straffan' is an old cultivar, but still one of the most popular amongst galanthophiles. It was discovered in 1858 in the garden of Lord Clarina at Straffan House, County Kildare, Ireland. It was thought that it is a chance hybrid between Galanthus plicatus, bulbs of which were brought back from the Crimea, and native Galanthus nivalis.
Straffan is known for often having two flowers on separate scapes from each bulb, but my bulbs are just settling in, so only have one bloom each. My immature bulbs are making up for it though, by having yellow blotches on the inner petals of their flowers instead of the typical green. It is said that the shape of the blotch on Straffan is shaped like a "Chinese moon bridge"... I'd laugh at that if I hadn't just been trying to say the green blotch on Galanthus 'Merlin' looks to me like a wizard with his arms stretched out.

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