Snowdrop Gardens visited during 2008

[Brian Ellis]

Right these are definitely the last ones of Glen Chantry, a few general shots courtesy of David who will take pictures without the labels!!  These include another statue from the White garden and a crocus just to show we are interested in other things

[Brian Ellis]

sorry, ran out of space!

[Mavers]

Wonderful pictures for all of us that didn't go...............THANK YOU!!!

Mike   

[Brian Ellis]

You are most welcome Mike, I have just been told off as the ones that were taken without labels didn't have any.  Sorry.  I was keen to get these up as I think there may be others from a different garden posted later by the wandering camouflaged galanthophile.

[Thomas Huber]

Brian, that white Crocus doesn't look like the standard white vernus "Jeanne D'Arc".
Do you have name for that one?

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry Thomas I don't know, and there was no name to be seen.  Many of the beds are quite large and we were all under strict instructions (kindly given) to keep our feet off the beds so perhaps one of you croconuts will be able to identify it. Here's the phot from which it was cropped if that helps at all.

[tonyg]

This crocus looks like the white form of crocus tommasinianus that Mark posted recently.  I certainly have a similar form with creamy outers and purple flecked inner petals.

Brian - how many other members of our AGS group have snowdrops named after them?

[Thomas Huber]

Tony, I think you're right! In the second photo the leaves do no longer look like vernus.

[Brian Ellis]

Tony, I think she may be a one-off although of course there is the Norfolk Blonde!  I think you are right with the identification as here is the lable (wonders of digital photography it was just a speck in the original photo!!)  enjoy the cemetery, I hope the drifts are as wonderful as last year.

[Brian Ellis]

Anyone interested in downloading a 5 minute Quicktime slideshow of Glen Chantry's Snowdrops can do so at
http://idisk.mac.com/band1-Public?view=web

Best done if you have broadband, otherwise it could take some time.

[Paul T]

Great pics.  Thanks for taking the time and effort to load them for us to enjoy.

[KentGardener]

Friday Part One:

My Snowdrop viewing fortnight carries on apace.  The driver has been heard muttering “you do realise that I will have driven over 1000 miles this month to see your bloody Snowdrops!”  (Note to self: I must remember to put extra cakes in today’s packed lunched).  You may have read a posting from Alan_B a few weeks ago giving details of how one can view the private collection of snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey.  Each day the National Trust issue 50 tickets for the ‘private tour’ – these are quickly reserved early in the day, so we were most fortunate that Alan_B offered to go early and obtain 3 tickets for us.

Friday morning we found ourselves crossing the River Thames into Essex for the second time in three days.  However, for once there was no queue on the A2 road, no queue for the tunnel, no queue on the M25 motorway and no queue on the M11 motorway.  All in all, we made it to Cambridge, our destination, in the record time of 1 hour 30 minutes.  As we were there so early we started the day by driving down a country lane in search of wild populations of Snowdrops.  We spotted many small clumps in hedgerows and stopped at a few places to look.

(KentGardener Galanthus Spotting)




(a pheasant who was not very well camouflaged - a bit like me!)




It surprised us how common snowdrops appeared to be in Cambridgeshire (for some reason it is seldom that we see them as much where we live in Kent).  After a few miles we met a very nice lady walking her dogs who gave us directions to a place she called ‘Primrose Wood’.  This was a beautiful area consisting of woodland, fields, rivers and a lake.  There were large populations of nivalis Flore Pleno covering the clearings and river banks.

(Double nivalis)




(Winter Aconites)




Two hours passed very quickly ambling along pathways and admiring the vast carpets of Winter Aconites, Double Snowdrops and occasionally single nivalis.  As we got deeper into the woodland, I almost jumped out of my skin as I narrowly avoided stepping on a pheasant that made a VERY loud protest at my descending boot!

(Fallen Tree)




(Woodland Clearing)




(House on the lake)




(Swanlake?....)




(KentGardener having a closer inspection)




John

....to be continued....

[KentGardener]

Friday Part Two:

We left Primrose Wood and headed out to Anglesey Abbey.  On route I spotted snowdrops in a Churchyard, but alerted the driver too late to stop.  He could tell by my down turned mouth that I would have liked to have a quick wander around (and luckily for me, he had not yet overdosed on snowdrops).  A mile up the road, a quick 360 degrees of a roundabout was made and I was allowed 15 mins to wander amongst the gravestones.

(Quy Church)




(a photo in the style of Paddy)




(a few general shots)








(A simple wooden cross)




(Gargoyle drainage pipe)





John

...to be continued....

[art600]

John

What camera do you have?  I think I remember you saying it was a point and shoot - surely not with the quality of the wonderful shots - and we have not even reached Anglesey Abbey.

More please

[KentGardener]

Friday Part Three:

It was now time to meet Alan_B at Anglesey Abbey.

(Anglesey Abbey)












The driver and I arrived at 1.15pm to find both sections of the main car park were completely full.  We were directed to the other end of Lode village, and the overflow car park.  It was then a brisk 5 minute walk back to the entrance.  We asked one of the gardeners if there was perhaps a special event happening and he informed us the crowds were all there to see the snowdrops!    Entry to the gardens costs £4.00 (free for National Trust members) – The limited tickets for the private tour are free – but strictly limited to 50 per day.

The tour starts by proceeding along the ‘woodland walk’, designed to have plants of winter interest and culminating in a fantastic grove of Birch trees (and yes, the gardeners do wash the trunks to keep them looking so good!)  We then proceeded through a gateway into some light woodland, past a watermill house, along the feeder pond and arrived at a large roped off area.

(Birch Trees)




(walk to the 'specials')






All of the preceding parts of Anglesey Abbey gardens are open to visitors.  At this point we had to give in our tickets to enter the ‘special snowdrop’ area.  Somehow we had managed to pick up 4 ticket-less people along the way who now found their way blocked – you can’t blame them for trying!

Our small group were given a quick history of the special snowdrops by our gardening guide.  A quick summary is that many trees had to be felled following Dutch Elm disease.  Galanthus had been grown at Anglesey Abbey, for Apothecary reasons, for hundreds of years.  Suddenly all these Galanthus, that had been quietly breading over many years, found themselves growing in a near perfect environment.  Among these plants was found a particularly nice specimen which was named as ‘Galanthus Anglesey Abbey’.  So many people wanted to grow this in their own collection that many swaps were arranged and the varieties in the collection grew.  Even now, Anglesey Abbey are adding to their collection by swapping with other growers.
  
(our small group)




(our gardening guide explaining how to spot the difference between different types of snowdrop - using Magnet as an example)



Do please let me know if you have had enough of my wanderings or whether you would like to hear what we got up to on Saturday.  

regards

John