50 shades of white... Ireland’s rare snowdrop collection
Snowdrops are stunning –and bring the promise of warmer days to come
WHEN naturalist Henry John Elwes decided to explore the flora of western Turkey in 1874, he stumbled across snowdrops in the mountains near Izmir that looked completely different from the diminutive white flowers that carpet deciduous woodlands between late winter and early spring.
Much taller than Galanthus nivalis, the botanical name for our common snowdrop, this species also had broader leaves and larger flowers, with two distinctive green markings on the inner petals. Elwes marked the spot where he found them and arranged for some bulbs to be collected later.
Botanists were to name the flower Galanthus elwesii in his honour, and its stature has led to it being dubbed ‘the giant flowered snowdrop’.
This wild species has become parent to a raft of wonderful varieties, including ‘Abington Green’ and ‘Marjorie Brown’.
One of the best places in Ireland to see snowdrops is in Burtown House, an early Georgian villa near Athy in Co. Kildare, which has one of the finest snowdrop displays in the country. The gardens and café are open so the public can see the extraordinary swathes of snowdrops and aconites spread out like a jewelled carpet amid the trees around the house.
Isabel Shackleton, a cousin of the explorer Ernest Shackleton, who was married to the present owner’s great-grandfather, created the original garden layout. However, over the past 20 years it has been enlarged and reclaimed by the family today, artist Lesley Fennell and her son, photographer James Fennell.
Lesley’s mother was the acclaimed botanical artist Wendy Walsh, who sadly died last year. She had a collection of rare plants at her home in Lusk and many of these have been moved to Burtown too.
The gardens come to life in Feb- ruary with a spectacular show of winter aconites and snowdrops along the avenue and in the woods.
For Lesley Fennell, the main joy of snowdrops is in the great drifts of them in natural woodland and garden plantings. As a painter her- self, she loves to see them in association with companion plants to break up the all-white colour, as it shows them up better.
Lesley has started some companion planting in Burtown and her favourite combinations include Tommasinianus (purple and naturalising), winter aconites, Blue Scilla, Iris reticulata (there are different ones) Hellebores, Cyclamen and early naturalising daffodils and narcissus.
Burtown House is over 300 years old and there have been snowdrops there down the centuries. Lesley Fennell says they have more than 50 varieties and last year she began to create a special raised bed display of all the varieties, some of which are quite rare.
The displays at Burtown are sensational but you don’t need a country estate to grow snowdrops.
To create a spectacle in any garden, either buy pot-grown plants or those sold ‘in the green’ – the way gardeners refer to snowdrops lifted from the ground after they’ve finished flowering.
To plant snowdrops ‘in the green’, dig a small hole with a trowel and place a cluster of plants in the centre. Backfill with soil, ensuring they are planted to the same depth as they were growing beforehand.
Snowdrops are highly versatile. They’re ideal planted en masse under trees in a woodland-style garden or mixed with winterinterest shrubs, grasses and other seasonal bulbs, such as aconites (Eranthis hyemalis), crocuses and early-flowering daffodils.
Another way to display snowdrops is to naturalise them in grass. They hate getting too hot, so avoid exposed areas and grow beneath deciduous trees and shrubs to provide them with shade in summer.
Put a handful in several places, spacing the plants 8in apart.