SNOWDROPS GALORE

THE Garden House’s renowned and diverse snowdrop collection was established by Galanthus expert Matt Bishop, a former head gardener at the Garden House, and includes many unusual varieties.

Matt now has his own worldwide snowdrop business (www.mattbishopsnowdrops. co.uk).

The Garden House collection includes Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus ‘Matt Bishop’.

When asked why he gave this snowdrop cultivar his own name, he replied: “Matt Bishop was my own selection, named in case I get run over by a bus and someone attaches my name to a poor snowdrop!”

Colin Mason was the owner of Fieldgate Snowdrops, from which he made successful hybrids which proved to be successful and attractive. He bulked these up by ‘twin scaling’.

Colin was also responsible for bulking up, from just one bulb, the classic Galanthus ‘South Hayes’, which originated in the legendary Primrose Warburgs garden

Colin admired and valued snowdrops growing in the wild, in their place of origin. This passion took him, sometimes on horseback, to see rare species in Georgia and Turkey. Some of these were successfully cultivated in his collection and can now be seen at the Garden House.

Sadly, Colin died on December 30, aged 92. Family and friends planted snowdrops on his grave.