Garden of the Week
Snowdrops and alpine treasures are unfurling their blooms at Branklyn Garden, forming a wonderful display below ancient trees
Originally designed in the 1920s by John and Dorothy Renton, using seeds collected by international plant hunters, Branklyn Garden is a hillside garden packed with thousands of unusual species. It's now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland and managed by
Head Gardener Jim Jermyn. The season begins with thousands of snowdrops planted in drifts among the trees and shrubs, followed by colourful swathes of aconites, crocuses, hellebores, hepaticas and trilliums. “These early blooms are a life support for hungry bees when they awake,” says Jim.
Its Snowdrop Festival Weekends, on February 15-16 and 22-23 this year, attracting specialist galanthophiles as well as members of the public who delight in the dazzling clusters of pure white flowers meandering between the woodland plantings.
Branklyn Garden is home to swarms of common Galanthus nivalis snowdrops, to which Jim has added an astonishing 200 different varieties. Galanthus elwesii and early varieties ‘Gerard Parker’, ‘Faringdon Double’ and ‘The Laird’ were already in flower early last month.
During its main opening season, from April to September, visitors can enjoy jewel-bright daffodils, Erythronium dens-canis (dog’s tooth violets), azure-blue meconopsis (Himalayan poppies) and bell-shaped cassiopes, together with sumptuous magnolia and rhododendron blooms.
Jim leads a team of about 50 volunteers in maintaining the garden to keep it looking its best for visitors. "The whole area used
to be home to fruit orchards, which flourished in the heavy soil on a sloping, south-facing site, and it also suits our woody plantings," he says. "However, a lot of trees are approaching 100-years-old and have outgrown their positions, so we have regular visits from a tree surgeon who removes branches to keep the trees safe," Jim says.
The team are also moving some of the rhododendrons, which originally came from nearby Glendoick Gardens but are now overcrowded. "They're surprisingly easy to move because they're so shallow rooted," Jim explains.
The garden has a very natural feel and grass paths are used to lead the visitors from one area to the next. However, these do wear under the constant footfall in summer, so they're returfed in winter. The cascade and pond are also being cleared and renovated and the bitumen lining repainted, and a fountain will be installed in spring.
To help protect the open site, windbreak plantings of privet and thuja have been made, but all the plants in the garden are very hardy. "Everything just looks after itself," says Jim. However, he's slightly concerned by how advanced many of the plants are this year.
"Following the mild winter, the snowdrops are two weeks ahead of where they usually are, hellebores are opening early and we even have buds fattening on peony 'Joseph Rock'." He does use fleece to cover vulnerable buds on rhododendrons and special peonies if they're likely to be damaged by hard frosts or heavy snow.