Galanthus 'Sutton Courtenay'

Galanthus ‘Sutton Courtenay’ is a snowdrop that I am hugely fond of.  It is a strong, early plant whose rounded flowers are large for the size of the plant, held well clear of the short, upright, grey-green leaves.  The ovary is a lovely olive-green to yellow colour, which to me feels much closer to yellow than green.  This makes it easy to pick out from a distance, and it really does look wonderful in a clump.

The inner segment, to me, is absolutely beautiful.  It shows a small ‘V’ at the apex, which can sometimes display as two small marks, one either side of the sinus, and it always tends to be a darker green than the rest of the inner markings and the ovary.  There is then a basal blotch, which tends to match the colour of the ovary and seems faded compared with the apical mark.  This gives a really beautiful-looking inner segment, and one that I am so fond of; I would genuinely say that ‘Sutton Courtenay’ is one of the very favourite snowdrops that I grow.  It is quite a short plant and, in my opinion, just wonderful in every way.  I love seeing it flower every year, and it gives me a lot of joy.

It came from the garden of Nancy Lindsay at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, and Primrose Warburg distributed it from South Hayes as a form of G. gracilis.  The monograph describes it as a robust G. gracilis hybrid, probably involving G. plicatus, and notes that its inner marking is similar to that of many clones of G. gracilis.  Just from looking at the plant, I agree: although it is almost certainly a hybrid, I can clearly see G. gracilis in it, in the combination of the inner markings and, to some extent, the foliage.

One thing I have noticed about ‘Sutton Courtenay’ is that, as a seed parent, in my opinion it is absolutely first class.  Some of the seedlings I have managed to grow from it are also some of my favourite plants in my collection.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever name any of them, but I am bulking them up gradually and plan to distribute them to friends as and when I’ve made my selections.  It is a plant that I breed with every year, and I expect to see new and beautiful plants from ‘Sutton Courtenay’ in the future.  Here in the North West, it usually flowers in mid January.

Sources
Some of the background here comes from Bishop, Davis & Grimshaw, Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus.