{"product_id":"sofia","title":"Galanthus reginae-olgae subsp. reginae-olgae 'Sofia'","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eGalanthus reginae-olgae\u003c\/em\u003e subsp. \u003cem\u003ereginae-olgae\u003c\/em\u003e 'Sofia' is a really lovely snowdrop.  The flowers are big and have a good, thick substance to them, and they hang from strong, upright scapes.  The outer segments are broad and flat and spread out wide, and each inner segment carries a very broad and bold green 'U', rather than a 'V', over the sinus, filling just over a third of the segment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eFreda Cox lists 'Sofia' among Melvyn Jope's introductions, and it is one of the small group of seedlings he named from Peloponnesian stock, alongside \u003ca href=\"\/products\/alexandra\"\u003e'Alexandra'\u003c\/a\u003e and others.  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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eHere in the North West it usually flowers from late September to mid-October.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"wrj-sources\" style=\"font-size: 0.75em; color: #8a8a8a; text-align: left; line-height: 1.5; border-top: 1px solid #e6e6e6; padding-top: 10px; margin-top: 28px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong style=\"font-weight: 600;\"\u003eSources\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSome of the background here comes from Freda Cox, \u003cem\u003eA Gardener's Guide to Snowdrops\u003c\/em\u003e; Brian Ellis (by email, October 2026).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WRJ SNOWDROPS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57708199149894,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0970\/0701\/0118\/files\/reginae-olgae_Sofia_-_CR1_7579_-_MAIN_square_cc61a152-48a1-4cc8-8fd7-524acca6bf26.jpg?v=1793790320","url":"https:\/\/www.wrjsnowdrops.co.uk\/products\/sofia","provider":"WRJ Snowdrops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}