Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The Snowdrop Cometh

When was the last time you paid $565.00 for a snowdrop bulb? Well, apparently, this is the price that an e-bay auction fetched for Galanthus plicatus - a very special (and expensive) cultivar of the more common Galanthus nivalis, which is pictured here. Follow the link for the whole story. Actually I wrote several blogs in succession on Snowdrops in my garden in March 2007. I even did some knitting with snowdrops in fair isle.
Snowdrops Toronto 2007

A Snuff of Snowdrops

Snuffier Snowdrops

Snuffiest of Snowdrops

Snowdrops are the precious first flowers of Spring, at least here in Toronto and I watch for them to come up,  as soon as the snow goes. I have several clumps in the garden - they really are a joy.

This doesn't actually have a lot to do with knitting except that the story of the outrageous price for the cultivated Snowdrop bulb reminded me of the classic stock market story of tulip mania in1637.  Things went really "viral" then, even without the internet, and at the height of the market, tulip bulbs were selling  for 10 times a labourer's annual salary. Then the market "crashed." People suddenly came to their senses and realized that no flower was worth that much.

As these flower stories suggest, it should be fairly easy to get a lot of people to find you and pay a handsome price for your offerings. Please let me know if you do....and how you did it.  I'm still hoping that something as amazing as Snowdrops and Tulips happens to knitting!!!!!

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