Allotments 4 All
Produce => Non Edible Plants => Topic started by: Robert_Brenchley on February 09, 2008, 08:11:12
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I found this in the independent; I wonder whether they really are that fashionable. I have hundreds, of numerous, probably nameless varieties anda couple of species, but I wouldn't pay over £100 for a bulb!
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Good grief Robert!!!! (neither would I)
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Could be nurseries buying them for propagation.
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Don't know much about snowdrops, but have some knowledge of daffodils through the chap who's fields are pictured in my avatar. He has "custody" of some new cultivars from the US that he is trialling in the UK to assess their performance and ability to bulk up in UK conditions. This is part of the viability & producability test for new varieties before they are launched. The ones he has ( and his own new breeds) are worth hundreds per bulbs as there are so few, they have taken years to get to where they are, and they have a potential commercial associated value in the future.
I am so lucky to be able to wander round his old stock fields at this time of year, but I have to say, for me there are so many wonderful daffs out there as it is, I can't see why we need any more.
Cheers
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Money! Personally I'd often rather preserve the old varieties that nobody bother with any more.
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Saw some today priced at £35 per bulb callede Wnedy's Gold.
But that was beaten hollow by a Hepatica japonica............................£185!
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I've seen up to £10/bulb asked for old varieties, but I've never checked out the newer ones. Someone once looked at my perfectly common Flore Pleno doubles, and claimed that they were 'their' allegedly unobtainable Lady Elphinstone, and I'd stolen them. Lady E goes for £6-10/bulb, and is a sort of sickly yellow; not something I'd ever want to grow. I checked that far, and never got any further. The allegations went away in the end.
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It seems that there is a group of people called Galanthophiles who think nothing of paying silly amounts of money for a bulb because the flower shows a minute difference in the size, shape, colour of the petals. Three figure sums are not uncommon. I must admit I have had serious doubts about paying £5 for a couple of flowering bulbs in a pot, but at the time I liked the plant because it was significantly different from the few other varieties I have.
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This thread put me in mind of the novel Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach. It's a good read. :)
G x
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Dumas' 'Black Tulip' is still worth reading, but I haven't come across that one.