Following on from my little Madeira Blog a few weeks ago (
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6401.0 ) it seemed a popular idea that I do similar for my Galanthus wanderings!
I'll start off this short blog off by mentioning that any thumbnail pictures can be clicked upon to view them in a larger form - I have chosen to embed them within my text to try and make things flow better
______________________________________________________________________________________
It's that time of year again where I find myself dashing from one end of the country to the other. Last year I traveled from Hampshire to Aberdeenshire and stopped off at half a dozen counties on the way. The hospitality of plants people and forum members is bloody brilliant.
This year is going to be a completely new set of places - I wish I could visit all the wonderful places again from the previous years - but there are only so many weeks in a snowdrop season.
Maybe next year?.....
This years 'Galanthus season' started for me yesterday with forum members Art600 and Kentish_Lass coming to see my little collection. I have been embarrassed to let anyone see my snowdrops before as my garden is tiny and it seems that 50% of the other people growing snowdrops have the odd half acre or three to display wonderful swathes of drops at their best! Mine are all shoe horned into a 45ft x 17ft garden behind a run of the mill terrace house (if anyone wants to leave me an acre in their will it would be VERY gratefully accepted
).
Arthur and Jennie arrived at 10am for refreshments and an hours look round my garden to start our day. I was expecting my 'grand tour' to take about 10 minutes but was pleasantly surprised when we realised that we had spent over an hour and there was still lots to see.
We had to leave my house at precisely 11.15 to drive over to Carolyn Millen's NGS open day that was starting at 12.00. Arthur, organised as always, had things timed to perfection and we pulled up outside Spring Platt at 11.58. Carolyn's enthusiasm for snowdrops is one shared by her daughter Julie and together they have been building up a wonderful collection of different Galanthus. In the last few years they have become seriously interested in chipping their bulbs and there are countless frames with 1 year old, 2 year old and 3 year old chips coming along. Some of the bulbs in the garden are in small numbers at present but seeing how many pots of 'babies' there are I think that in a couple of years there will be many fantastic clumps of some wonderful beauties.
Luckily for Carolyn it is not just her daughter that can help out in the garden, her husband John is very handy with a saw and hammer and has created some excellent raised beds to display the 'drops at a height they can be appreciated without getting wet knees (well, maybe Jennie's knees ended up just a bit damp
).
John has also built them, what reminded Jennie and I of a snowdrop take on an Auricula theatre. John intends to extend this area by another sleepers length this year to give his wife and daughter even more space to show off their joint collection in a great way.
As we wandered a few drops caught our attention, as is always the case! Firstly Reverend Hailstone - then I remembered that I had again been attracted to it the previous year in another garden and had talked myself out of acquiring one as to my mind "it wasn't different/special enough for my small garden" - but seeing it in the flesh once again it is a really nice big drop. Should I? Shouldn't I?....
Another flower that attracted mine and Jennie's eye was 'Fenstead End' - it looked like the flowers were going over but a wonderful dark dark green inside mark.
I think 'Rogers Rough' is a lovely plant in my garden and it was great to see it looking just as happy in somewhere else's - such a good do'er.
I'm always attracted to the yellows (and the green outered, and the fancies, and the spikies, and.....) and this was one I have not come across before - 'Windsor Yellow'. I would be interested to compare it to other sandersii.
It was so windy up on the Millen's hill that I was glad I remembered my hat. Arthur had forgotten his! Luckily, when we were starting to feel the cold we were tempted by the smell of Carolyn's homemade vegetable soup (which was absolutely delicious - I'm salivating just typing about it!
) and freshly cooked bread so we found a sheltered spot to hug our mugs of soup and thaw our fingers a little.
A couple of more general shots including that wonderful view from their garden over the Weald of Kent.
Arthur and Jennie returned to my house to finish looking at what I had in flower. Imagine my surprise then when Jennie was studying my drops and pointed out that there was 'Fenstead End' - it was two non flowering bulbs that I had completely forgotten a very kind friend had sent me a few months earlier while they were dormant, I am very much looking forward to seeing them flower next year.
Receiving yesterdays positive comments about my garden, and the extra bonus in that I managed to give away a few more pots of my surplus 'drops to my unsuspecting guests it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable day. Unfortunately the next two days will not be quite as much fun as I must be in the London office!.... but then I head down to Devon for the next instalment of this short blog.....
