Those crazy Europeans, they’re at it again with their crazy galanthomania.  I guess here in America we revel in our questionable pop culture and right to bear (and use) arms, but “they” go nuts over those little white flowers of the genus galanthus.  I think Japan is the only other place where plant nuts are so free to express themselves.  In the UK, snowdrops on Ebay are a springtime phenomena and just this week a new record was broken with the sale of “Golden Fleece”.

The winning bid for “Golden Fleece”, a yellow inverse poculiform (inPoc) which up until its appearance on Ebay was just a dream for some dropaholic.

1,390 pounds converts to about $2,150, and the 4 pounds shipping works out to a little over six dollars.  I did a little (very little) investigating and found that an ounce of gold closed at about $1,260 today, and according to my inexact estimates this snowdrop is worth approximately twice its weight in gold…. all at six dollars shipping.

I guess people are into snowdrops.  Fortunately I’ve missed that addiction, but if you haven’t and you’re somewhat interested, here’s a link to a Money magazine article on the “snowdrop bubble”.  It features an interview with our very own Carolyn of Carolyn’s Shade Garden, and if you happen to be interested she still has a few more reasonably priced snowdrops left for sale at her nursery…. just in case you’d like to see what some of the fuss is about.

Me on the other hand, I’m waiting for someone to cry out that the emperor has no clothes, or at least that all his clothes look the same… they’re all little bits of white and green and sometimes yellow which you can’t tell apart until you’re six inches away.  I of course would never fall for that.