Kitchen Garden Forum

I,ve found some clumps of very fine thin snowdrop leaves growing blind in a heavily dark shaded spot in my garden under a thick conifer. Am sure how old they are but they obviously haven't thrived even if they return every year.

Can anybody tell me what are the chances of them blooming next year...or ever ..if I separate all the tiny bulblets out individually and replant them in a more suitable sunnier area?

Dear Primrose,
every chance in the world. They may take a couple of years to get up to flowering size (but it is like seeds; they won't grow in the tin) so the sooner they are moved the better. Got a lot that need shifting myself so thanks for reminding me.
Regards Sally Wright.

Best way to find out would be to try with half of them, that way if it fails you can try again later somewhere else, though tiny bulblets may not flower until they are bigger, might take a year or so.

I would move them all to a sunnier place, Primrose, like Sally suggests, but I would also give them a small feed when planting.

Evening Primrose,
I would be inclined to leave them where they are for the time being to bulk up and move them to another site when the bulbs are dormant in late August early September.This is my peferred method and I find that I have better success in regard to moving them "in the green".If you use the above method mark where they are so that you know where they are when you want to dig them up.
Plant the bulbs 2-3 inches deep incorporating plenty of compost,leaf mould etc in their new site and as Sally writes they may take a couple of years to reward with their glorious blooms.
P.S.Have read of the site from the link below:-

http://www.judyssnowdrops.co.uk/index.html

What have you got to lose by moving them ? They are not flowering to any benefit anyway so nothing lost if they fail and every chance you might gain more benefit from them.

Try not to disturb the root base too much in the process, leave a good clump of soil on them, dont remove all the soil

As I am now spending more of my day in bed I have expanded my reading matter to include the mags concentrating on more floral matters.
Each one this week has adverts offering snowdrops for planting now.
I reckon that answers the question

I agree move them now. If you have a place that mimics deciduous woodland that would be ideal, sunny in the Spring but shaded later in the year, and if you can add some leafmould and bonemeal that would help.

It's interesting to note the speed at which snowdrops multiply. Two years ago I treated myself to four speciality snowdrops at a snowdrop park Open Day and specifically marked where they were planted so I could monitor their progress. Last year I had - just four snowdrops again. This year three of them have doubled up so I now have 6 blooms from them and the fourth is still a single bloom and stalk. I'm curious to discover what will happen next year.

I have just ordered some double snowdrops. I don,t know whether their multiplication rate will be the same as the single varieties. Again it will be a case of "wait and see"