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when growing cultivars, to avoid overcrowding. Clumps of snowdrops repeated around the garden in winter make a lovely feature.
To transplant snowdrops to other parts of your garden, lift plants that are ‘in the green’ after flowering, when the soil is moist. Carefully tease the clumps of bulbs apart by hand, trying to avoid damage to the roots.
It’s best to replant the bulbs singly, spacing each one at least two bulb widths apart. However, where large clumps include small seedlings, replant the bulbs in small clusters, spreading the roots out well, and water in.
If growing snowdrops in containers, re-pot in July or August when the plants are dormant, using fresh compost.
Don’t use strong fertilisers or manurebased compost; leaf mould is preferable and more similar to what they would encounter in their natural, shady, woodland environment.
Q
Please you could advise me and my friends about the problem of vetch which seems to constantly plague our gardens. We have tried digging it out but don’t always get the whole root out as it snaps. Weedkiller seems to have no effect, or boiling water! It seems that the more it is dug out, the more it fights back and reappears.
P.A. Fuller
A
Vetch, or Vicia sativa, is a member of the legume family and is sometimes planted in vegetable plots as a green manure – its roots have nitrogen fixing properties so can enrich a soil depleted of the element. However, when it pops up where it’s not welcome it can be a real nuisance. There’s no magic bullet – I can only advise persistence in manually weeding it out, particularly before it sets seed. Keep going and you will eventually triumph!