SOS (save our snowdrops)

[MargaretB]

 Over the past 12 years we have been creating a snowdrop walk beside a ditch on the edge of our wood, the snowdrops are all nivalis and seemed very happy, multiplying and seeding year on year.  A neighbouring farmer cleared the ditch last week and has covered the snowdrops in about 15 inches of wet soil.   Once it dries out, we hope to hire a digger to remove the offending mud but this will obviously not be a precision job and we don't want to dig too deeply and slice off the emerging shoots.  Will the bulbs suffer if we leave an extra inch or two of soil on top of the original planting depth?

Any advice greatly appreciated, thank you.

[Alan_b]

No, snowdrops can self-level upwards if necessary.  So they may suffer a check but they should recover.

Around where I live there are some verges with naturalised snowdrops that get dug-up every few years to lay some new cable or another but the snowdrops have always survived.

[mark smyth]

I agree that they will be OK. You could maybe just level the soil a bit assuming its in little mounds. Any photos?

[MargaretB]

Thank you Alan and Mark, that's very reassuring.  I've had a close inspection this morning and , in places, some of the edge of the ditch has been dug away taking the snowdrops as well, but they must be still there somewhere and I am comforted to know they will recover.  At one end of the ditch an attempt has been made to level the ground by spreading the surplus over a larger area so it is only about six inches deep and more manageable.

Final question, does anyone know of an easy way to extract wellies stuck in 15 inches of mud?  Luckily my feet aren't still in them!

[MargaretB]

A fairly happy ending to our problem, many of the g. nivalis have survived and flowered. We used a digger to move the worst of the wall of dumped soil and perhaps my husband was a little over-enthusiastic with the 'boys toy' as there are several bare patches now.  I used this as an excuse for a jaunt to the plant wholesalers in Wisbech to buy replacements which will be planted soon.  There are now snowdrops growing in unexpected places and it is cheering to see their will to survive despite what happens to them.

Thank you Alan and Mark for your advice.