Snowdrops say spring is on wa y

SNOWDROPS are bursting into life – awakening our gardens and offering the promise of better things to come.

Reliable and unassuming, these little beauties have hardened tips to force their way through frosty ground.

Plant bold clumps of the British native Galanthus nivalis beneath trees and shrubs and the garden will give the cool look of a fresh fall of snow.

For more stunning effects combine Galanthus elwesii, Galanthus Flore Pleno and Galanthus nivalus and plant in bold sweeps with aconites, primroses and clumps of narcissus in a border.

Snowdrops have fans known as galanthophiles, named after the snowdrop’s Latin name, Galanthus, and they have developed hundreds of varieties. Standard types have long, elliptical outer petals which make an attractively rounded flower with inner petals featuring a neat green upsidedown V at the tip.

Snowdrop variants can have more distinctive or unusual marks on petals and bloom at different times. Prices for rare flowers can be high – £700 has been paid for a single bulb.

Vigorous

A bit cheaper than that is G. nivalis Flore Pleno, a voluptuous double form with inner, green-tipped petals.

A pumped-up version is S. Arnott with white flowers with a bold inverted heart-like green mark at the tip. It smells of honey and bees love it.

Producing the earliest blooms, Atkinsii is a tall and vigorous form that has long pointed outer petals. Best for fragrance is Galanthus elwesii which produces huge sweetly scented flowers in January. It has pure white oval outer petals with a green inverted V mark at the tip of each inner petal.

Because snowdrop bulbs do not store well they are mostly bought “in the green” from specialist growers during late February through to May.

These are bare-rooted plants and supplied just as the flower is starting to fade and before the leaves have started to elongate.

Snowdrops hate wet conditions so put some grit into the soil when planting. Settle the plants at the level they were planted before being lifted.

As with other bulbs, let the bulbs die down naturally – on no account tie them in knots or cut them off.