11:02 - 10 January 2011
If there’s one plant that springs to mind in the cold January weather, it has to be the humble snowdrop.
Their pretty nodding heads are some of the first flowers to push through the cold winter earth and welcome in the lengthening days. Snowdrops date back to at least medieval times.
Snowdrops are thought to have been brought to Britain by Medieval Italian monks.
For some religions they were considered to be a symbol of the purity of the earth and were held sacred to virgins and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. For others they were associated with death because the flower looks like a corpse in a shroud. It was said that because the plant and flowers grew close to the ground that the plant was closer to the dead than the living. It was considered to be unlucky to pick the early snowdrops and to bring them indoors and foretold death.
And for many ancient religions snowdrops symbolise the first sign of spring and the beginning of life and light after the dark days of the winter and they are often the harbingers of spring. Nevertheless these delicate flowers can and do appear in mid winter and can be coaxed from their bulbs by bringing a pot or two of precious garden grown bulbs into a greenhouse and allowing them to flower a little earlier than the outdoor varieties.
Alternatively take a trip to the garden centre or local nursery where you are sure to find small pots on sale, hopefully at a sensible price. You can either plant these in the garden or pot them into pretty terracotta pots and grow them on in a cool greenhouse.
Choose Galanthus nivalis, the delicate, elegant common snowdrop or the larger Galanthus elwesii, both are excellent garden plants and widely available from bulb suppliers and nurseries. If you want to create a fabulous display en masse, then buy snowdrop bulbs ‘in the green’, after flowering and plant them in clumps to naturalise around the garden. As the dancing jewel-like flowers appear above the winter ground you will share in the wonders that captivated ancient civilisations and led them to use these graceful flowers in their celebrations, offerings and rituals.
Cultivation Notes
Snowdrops generally prefer moist soil that’s not too well drained, although snowdrops with ‘elwesii blood’ in them prefer a dryer place, because they originate in hotter climes.
Divide them every 2-3 years after flowering, depending on how rapidly they increase. As you might expect, the rarest and most expensive varieties are very slow to increase and more common snowdrops multiply very quickly.
Lift whole clumps gently using a fork; gently tease the bulbs apart. Replant in small groups of bulbs 5 to 7 is ideal. Feed the newly planted bulbs at planting time to give the replanted bulbs an extra boost.
Feed again in October or November and when the earth is clear of weeks dress with a granular fertiliser such as fish blood and bone and then mulch over the top with 3-4 inches of quality garden compost.
If you want your snowdrops to put all their energy into next year’s flowers and new bulbs beneath the soil then it is important to deadhead them so that they don’t set seed. But if you want to see if your plants will produce the next exciting development in snowdrop breeding, let them set seed and keep an eye on the resulting plants.
