Galanthus have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. A list of Irish cultivars can be found here Propagation is by offset bulbs, either by careful division of clumps in full growth ("in the green"), or removed when the plants are dormant, immediately after the leaves have withered; or by seeds sown either when ripe, or in spring. Professional growers and keen amateurs also use such methods as "twin-scaling" to increase the stock of choice cultivars quickly. Snowdrops contain an active lectin or agglutinin named GNA for "Galanthus nivalis" agglutinin. In 1995, Árpád Pusztai genetically modified potatoes with the
Luzula nivalis considered L. nivalis to be conspecific with L. arctica, but some of them (Hultén 1968, Böcher et al. 1968) have used the name L. arctica, while the others (Porsild and Cody 1980...) [have used] the correct name L. nivalis.". Elven et al. (2003) also noted that "L. campestris" var. "nivalis" was widely considered to be conspecific with "L. arctica." The current botanical consensus seems to be that lectotypification solves the issue and that "L. arctica" and "L. nivalis" should be regarded as the same species, with the name "L. nivalis" being chosen as this (derived from "L. campestris" var. "nivalis")