PLANT OF THE WEEK
GALANTHUS NIVALIS, SNOWDROP
of small pink, ruby red or white flowers, depending on the cultivar.
Vinca or periwinkle is a vigorous spreader that gives evergreen coverage 365 days a year with some lovely violet flowers in spring. It’s adaptable to most soils, spreading over rocks, up banks and under trees.
A word of warning though – only plant where you really want it to take over, so not in your herbaceous borders! Why do we love the common snowdrop so much?
Perhaps it’s the combination of their delicate appearance and robust constitution and how they produce fresh growth in the depths of winter.
Best planted in drifts, buy them now in pots or in late spring when freshly lifted and the foliage is dying back or ‘in the green’ just after flowering.
The bulbs don’t like drying out so a moist well-drained position in the garden in partial shade is ideal. Feed after flowering. Leave to naturalise, or lift and divide clumps every other year in early summer when the foliage is turning yellow to promote flowering.
Go and experience one of the UK’s finest Snowdrop Walks in Rode Hall in Cheshire.
The gardens were designed by landscape artist Humphry Repton, and 2018 marks the 200th anniverary of his death.
Walk among more than 70 varieties of snowdrops on a mile-long route through the Old Wood and Wild Garden.
Runs until March 3, 11am to 4pm, closed Mondays, admission £5. For other good places to see snowdrops, visit nationaltrust.org.uk