John Richmond writes on behalf of The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, Devon.
" We'll be running our annual snowdrop festival every Friday - Sunday from 10th January 2025 to about the middle of March (snowdrop duration depending on the mildness of the winter). The collection now comprises about 350 species and cultivars, with new additions from the Colin Mason collection that are now beginning to build up throughout our 10 acre garden. Obviously we're keen to promote this. Pat Eaton, our resident (volunteer) has written an article on the snowdrop collection and thiis is expected to appear in the SRGC February Journal.
I hope this is of interest to you.
If you have any queries or need more information please don't hesitate to contact me.
John Richmond
for The Garden House
Buckland Monachorum
Devon
www.thegardenhouse.org.ukNotes on The Garden House 2025 Snowdrop Festival by Pat Eton:
The Garden is the custodian of significant collection of Galanthus. These were first introduced by Keith Wiley and Matt Bishop, with the more recent legacy of Colin Mason’s collection, moved from Warwickshire by Head Gardener Nick Haworth and David Milburn in 2020. This collection significantly widened the gene pools. One of the challenging aspects is to work out the correct placing within the micro climates of the garden of the rarely cultivated species. This has proved to be an experimental challenge, using reference sources for guidance where possible.
We would like to share with you some of our findings, starting in early autumn, through winter, to the spring.
The species G. reginae-olgae are flowering here as they do in their native Mediterranean, in September, and an appreciate full sun and good drainage. G. reginae-olgae subsp reginae-olgae prefer some dappled shade and tend to flower slightly later, from October to December.
G.peshmanii, also autumn flowering, from small pockets of the Turkish mainland, has proved more challenging. Flowering October – November, disliking high temperatures and wet or cold conditions. We have tried to grow it in an alpine plunge bed under protection. In the last two autumns G. peshmanii ‘Green Flight’ bulked up quite well and flowered most attractively.
G. platyphyllus, from the Caucasus, a ‘snow melt’ plant with wide glossy leaves, preferring sunny alpine meadows, has proved difficult. Flowering well in its first two wet springs here, the very dry spring of 2022 was a disappointing no show. Another bulb planted in more shade produced leaves in 2023, and flowered in 2024, demonstrating how weather and climate affect this rare species.
G. krasnovii, from N.E. Turkey and the Black Sea coastal regions, also having very broad glossy leaves, took three years to reach flowering following the move, but flowered for the second time last March with unique elongated segments.
The Colin Mason collection contains several cultivars of G. JMDS from the Ardennes, and we are hoping to find out more about their origins. There are also very significant colonies of G. ikariae, G. rizehensis, and G. lagedechianus. Generally these are well settled and are naturalising.
The original Garden House Snowdrop collection features large naturalised colonies. G. woronowii thrives best in damp semi shade with good drainage, having green glossy leaves, as does the magnificent yellow ovaried G. w. ‘Elizabeth Harrison’ from Colin Mason.
G. elwesii, especially the autumn flowering clones, do best in good light and are quite prolific from mid autumn. These include G. e. ‘Hoggets Round’. ‘Yellow’ snowdrops hold a fascination of their own. Best known is G. plicatus ‘Wendy’s Gold’, which, for all its good looks, is quite susceptible to virus, and G. x ‘Primrose Warburg’ with yellow ovary and rounded outer segments.
‘Difficult’ yellows here include G. nivalis ‘Ecusson d’Or’ (Sandersii Group), with yellow markings on the apex of its outers. It seems to be establishing better in open, good light. There are a number of newer yellow cultivars such as G. ‘Das Gelb von Ei’ (‘Egg Yolk’) which require time to prove their ability. The only double yellow in the collection is G. nivalis ‘Lady Elphinstone’ which is notoriously slow to increase.
There are many wonderful Galanthus with inverse green markings (transferred to the outer segments). The best and probably most favourite here being G. ‘Trumps’ which provides a great legacy to Matt Bishop who saw its potential.
Of the many double cultivars probably the best example of real symmetry is seen in G. elwesii ‘Godfrey Owen’ with its large precise segments and good bulking up habit. The classic G. ‘E. A. Bowles’ is another truly outstanding snowdrop but slow to increase. Those Galanthus with long pedicels to the flowers are topped completely by the magnificent G..elwesii ‘Fly Fishing’ which flowers for Christmas onwards.
There is so much more which could be written here, with over 350 different cultivars, both naturalised and displayed in labelled borders and beds. So do visit and see the collections at different times during the Snowdrop season. Specialist nurseries will also be coming to sell snowdrops and other seasonal plants. Also look out for our ‘Snowdrop of the Day’ feature on Facebook and Instagram which will run throughout the festival season.
We look forward to welcoming visitors to the 2025 Snowdrop Festival.
The 2025 Snowdrop Festival opens on 10th January 2025 .
Pat Eaton
