Galanthus nivalis 'Maximus'
21st January 2010
A bit of an oddity, this cultivar is officially extinct and this picture is therefore an illusion.
If I am to be fair (and I don't see any particularly good reason) then I would admit that this is almost
certainly not the original cultivar. I have just bought it because I liked the flower. It is larger than
G.nivalis, at least in the form I grow, and is taller and later.
Where it was selected, who named it, where did it come from. Perhaps I will never know.
Where did I buy it? Wisley!
5th February 2012
A figure of a plant named G. n. 'Maximus' appears in an article by E. E. Bowles in 1918
(JRHS vol.43, p.28 et seq.) showing a plant that resembles this one however the Lindley Library hold an
illustration painted by Bowles showing a plant that is distinctly green tipped on the outer segments.
The cultivar was assumed to be extinct but in 2001 P. Nijssen, a Dutch bulb merchant, offered
bulbs bearing this name and I assume that my plant derives from that stock by some route
or other.
I have it growing in the garden, but I don't have an opinion.
9th February 2013