Snowdropamania

Well what can I say when I read a certain news item recently. ‘A collector paid £360 on eBay for a single type of Snowdrop bulb’ The Snowdrop collecting fashion has taken off. Pardon?!!

This sounds very familiar, was it only last autumn that I wrote the article on ‘Tulipmania’. Can it be that tulips have morphed into snowdrops?

It appears that snowdrops have a very dedicated following (so did tulips!) Record prices are now being paid for single bulbs (sounds like tulips all over again) as a growing profitable business has developed in order to meet the demand of the growing number of snowdrop collectors. Some of these collectors are becoming increasingly competitive when it comes to obtaining what type of species or variety they would like (No deaths yet! But there have been recorded incidents of thefts).

So in these last few years we have seen a mania starting to grow revolving around snowdrops. It appears that there has been a big increase in interest in all things snowdrop.

Apparently the £360 price tag was a new record price for the most expensive snowdrop bulb ever sold. Some people think they can make quick money (definitely tulipmania all over again). Yes, it may be collectors who are fuelling this frenzy, but wait until the speculators arrive.

Tulips were first imported to Holland in 1593. So what do we have in common? Tulips were not native to Holland, The snowdrop is not native to the U K.

The tulip, being a unique flower made it widely sought after in Holland. Apparently the snopdrop, also unique, is now being widely sought after in the U K.

Tulip bulbs, due to a mutation, came in a different variety of colours.

With snowdrops apparently there are 20 different species of wild snowdrop in the world with up to 2,000 cultivated varieties.

The different variations of the mutation with the tulip made them very attractive in Holland in the 17^th century. This led to dealers in the 1630’s to start dealing in these bulbs in a big way, speculation on the tulip bulbs took off. ‘Tulipmania’ had arrived in Holland.

Due to the distinctiveness of the tulip bulbs the Dutch were willing to pay more and more for these bulbs, utilising their entire savings and selling other assets such as property, animals and even dowries in order to get more tulip bulbs.

Are we about to see ‘Snowdropamania’?

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Please note that the above article does not constitute financial advice.