Galanthus ‘Hans Guck in Die Luft’

A distinctive and rather characterful German snowdrop, ‘Hans Guck in die Luft’ is attributed to Johan Joschko. It was described in the early 2010s as a new German cultivar and was already being circulated amongst snowdrop enthusiasts by this period. 

The flowers are held on notably long pedicels above the foliage, with large, well-shaped blooms and with distinct pale green markings at the base of the inner segments. Its unusual combination of stature, flower size and green marking gives it considerable presence in the collection, while its slightly idiosyncratic character seems entirely appropriate to its name.

The name refers to Hanns Guck-in-die-Luft, the dreamy, absent-minded boy from Heinrich Hoffmann’s Struwwelpeter, first published in 1845. In the story, Hanns walks along gazing upwards at the sky rather than watching where he is going — an amusing piece of German cultural nomenclature for an equally distinctive snowdrop.

Its exact species parentage is not consistently established. The RHS currently lists it simply as Galanthus ‘Hans Guck in die Luft’ and gives its name status as unresolved, so it is preferable not to assign it to G. elwesii or G. ikariae without further evidence. Most likely a hybrid between G. elwesii and G.plicatus

Nomenclature: Galanthus ‘Hans Guck in die Luft’
Provenance: Germany
Attributed to: Johan Joschko
Flowering: January–February
Height: c. 15–20cm
Spread: 10–15cm
Hardiness: H5
Soil: Moist, humus-rich and well drained
Aspect: Partial shade to full sun