New Cultivars of Galanthus nivalis in Slovenia

Abstract

In Slovenia there is only one species of common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) that occurs in all four of its phytogeographical regions. Slovenia is located in the center of the distribution of this species. At some sites the subpopulations of snowdrop are common and abundant, but at other sites they may consist of only a few individuals within small populations. Galanthus nivalis occurs in a diversity of habitats and individual plants within stands are extremely variable in many of their characteristics. The purpose of this research is to determine the diversity within the species and to identify new stable variants that are interesting for horticultural purposes and use. We examined plants in populations that were the most diverse and isolated individual characteristics from them, which we then cultivated for several years and determined their stability. We found two new varieties that have a very distinctive smell, and one of the new varieties retains its outer perigone leaves completely closed at the end of flowering. The new varieties belong to three different groups: the Skirt group, the Imperial group and the Green group.