Nurseryman James Atkins (1804–1884) of Northampton was one of the earliest so honoured, and the tall, early-flowering, robust Galanthus 'Atkinsii' is still grown, having been distributed widely by Canon Ellacombe of Bitton.
[2] He claimed in 1891 to have grown every known species of Galanthus and raised over 100 distinct seedlings, but much of his collection was lost to botrytis and narcissus fly soon afterward.
Galanthus x allenii is a hybrid of unknown origin that appeared in a batch of G. latifolius (now G. platyphyllus), which Allen received from an Austrian supplier in 1883.
The bulbs were probably collected in the Caucasus, but G. × allenii has never been found in the wild since, so that no one can do more than speculate on where the cross occurred and what other species may have been involved.
Botanist Aaron Davis and gardeners Matt Bishop and John Grimshaw, authors of the works on which these notes are based, also qualify as galanthophiles.