Galanthus reginae-olgae subsp. reginae-olgae 'Alexandra'

Galanthus reginae-olgae subsp. reginae-olgae ‘Alexandra’ is a sturdy, chunky little snowdrop, with rounded flowers of good substance held on short, strong scapes. The inner segments carry a crisp green mark over the sinus which narrows towards the middle, so it often looks like two separate little green marks, one either side of the sinus. The monograph also notes something unusual about it: fine green lines on the inside of the inner segments, in two separate rows running from tip to base, and it says ‘Alexandra’ is the only named clone to show this.

It is one of a number of seedlings selected from Peloponnesian stock, alongside ‘Sofia’ and others, and it was Melvyn Jope who introduced it into cultivation and named it. I had heard it said, in general snowdrop chat over the years, that Melvyn named his snowdrops after people he met in Greece, and Brian Ellis has confirmed that this was something he was aware of too. They were named after people who helped Melvyn in Greece for various reasons, whether landowners, people who told him where snowdrops might be found, those who helped with his permissions to export the bulbs, or others who were helpful on his trips. Here in the North West it usually flowers in mid to late October.

Sources
Some of the background here comes from Bishop, Davis & Grimshaw, Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus; Freda Cox, A Gardener’s Guide to Snowdrops; Brian Ellis (by email, October 2026).