National Gardens Scheme volunteer, Avril Hughes has been fascinated by snowdrops ever since a friend bought her a selection over ten years ago. Here, she shares her excitement and insights for the snowdrop season ahead…
Ona cold, crisp, sunny winter day snowdrops cheer any garden or park. They ignite the hope that spring is just around the corner. Large parks, gardens and churchyards can be places to roam through, enjoying large swathes of nodding snowdrops, and the vistas of these can be breath-taking.
In my small Edwardian garden I have nurtured my obsession with snowdrops. What started more than ten years ago with a gift from a friend has transformed into a collection of about one hundred and forty varieties.
Mid-January arrives and I fizz with excitement and anticipation. Sales of snowdrops, visits to snowdrop gardens, talks, meeting with friends only seen in snowdrop season, lunches and snowdrop swaps fill the February diary….
What to start your collection with It’s almost impossible to say which are my favourites, but these are some easy varieties with which to start a collection and they all look very different:
‘Diggory’ – looking like a puff ball skirt with puckered outers.
‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’ – a double which looks as if she has opened, even on the greyest of days. A common snowdrop that bulks up quickly.
‘Godfrey Owen’ – with six inner and six outer segments, it looks like a helicopter on a sunny day.
‘Alan’s Treat’ – technically called poculiformis (inside and outside segments the same length, named after the snowdrop supplier and wonderful nurseryman, Alan Street, looks like a narrow lampshade with green markings on the outside, and is possibly my favourite
‘Rosemary Burnham’ – flushed green on the outside, can be difficult to grow
‘Green Tear’ – almost completely green, once established creates a good clump.
No collection would be complete without a ‘yellow ovary and inner perianth marked’ snowdrop, and the easiest is possibly ‘Spindlestone Surprise’. Although there are now many more ‘yellow’ snowdrops this one creates a good clump and seems easy to grow in the garden.
Pot display inspiration
Some collectors display Galanthus in clay pots. This is more specialist but has the advantage that they are easy to see in detail and to keep track of where they are.
Another method is to sink aquatic pots of different varieties into the flower beds onto sand beds. The main advantage of this is that you are not likely to accidentally dig them up and it’s easy to split them when they are overgrown. My snowdrops are grown directly in the garden with a black label in front of the c
