Galanthus ‘G71’

A distinctive member of the celebrated Greatorex Double group, ‘G71’ is a fully double snowdrop with broad, outward-facing flowers and a relatively dense arrangement of inner segments. The outer tepals are white, with attractive green markings towards their bases, while the inner segments carry a particularly dark green apical marking, reputedly darker than that found on ‘Dionysus’. The flowers have a somewhat informal, spreading appearance, typical of these early double hybrids. The Greatorex Double group originated with Heyrick Anthony Greatorex (1884–1954), who, during the 1940s, crossed the double form of Galanthus nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’ with Galanthus plicatus, creating a series of distinctive double hybrids. In the 1970s, Fred Buglass, a member of the RHS, visited Greatorex's former garden in Norwich and collected three particularly double forms, which he labelled ‘G71’, ‘G75’ and ‘G77’. The numerical names have remained, rather than being replaced with cultivar names. A fascinating piece of snowdrop history, ‘G71’ is best grown in humus-rich, moisture-retentive but well-drained soil, in partial shade. Height: 20–30 cm Spread: 10–15 cm Flowering: February–March An interesting point of distinction: ‘G71’ is not one of Greatorex's original numbered seedlings, but a selection made from his garden by Fred Buglass some two decades after Greatorex's death.