Who doesn’t love snowdrops? Their icy white bonnets are cute, perfectly formed, and are the official heralds of spring, mainly blooming around January, although depending on the weather & your region, it’s not unusual to see them in December, and the season can last into March.
According to the Woodland Trust, the official average day for the first snowdrop flower appearing in the UK is the 26th of January.
Growing Snowdrops in Your Garden is Easy
Snowdrops naturalise very well in most gardens and lawns, and because they are only above ground for a short while in Spring when there isn’t much else happening, they are a go-to filler bulb for pretty much any design. You don’t have to do anything to manage them except maybe dig up and move a clump to another area.
Right now is the best time to plant Wild Snowdrops and Double Snowdrops, along with some other early spring bulbs, when they are in growth, known as “In the Green”, as opposed to dry in Autumn.
To grow well, they love moist, humus-rich soil and dappled shade to protect the soil from drying out too much in summer. Woodland is their natural habitat, so leafmould is the best kind of soil improvement for them.
They struggle a bit in heavy clay, in the sense that they tend to multiply at a much slower rate.
To get them to naturalise quickly in your lawn, try planting them in patchy spots where the lawn isn’t too dense, or in the holes made after removing weeds.
Are you a Galanthophile?
People who love snowdrops are called galanthophiles (from the botanical name Galanthus nivalis). Galanthophiles gather in January and February to admire the markings on different cultivars, pondering over the finer points of the tiny white petals, the twist of the leaves or the size of the sinus marks (those little flecks of green at the base of each flower).
Admiring snowdrops is its own reward, but it can pay off as well: a snowdrop with a rare yellow head and markings went for more than £700 on eBay in 2012.
In 2011, after a Royal Horticultural Society show, the entire stock of Galanthus ‘Green Tear’ was stolen from the Somerset nursery that supplied it by Snowdrop bandits.
Where are the best places to view Snowdrops in Spring?
To see huge swathes of snowdrops, there are plenty of dedicated snowdrop days held at gardens around the UK.
Painswick Rococo Garden in Gloucestershire is all sweeping vistas, fanciful follies and pavilions, and long avenues of beautifully manicured lawns. In January and February, among the Rococo finery and above the maze, they are host to over 5 million snowdrops, made up of 15 varieties.
One of these is Galanthus ‘Atkinsii’, discovered there in the 1800s by James Atkins, who lived in a cottage on the estate. ‘Full blooming’ is announced towards the end of January.
One of the best-loved places to see snowdrops was Hodsock Priory in Nottinghamshire, which sadly closed the gardens to the public in 2022. Their snowdrops number around 4 million, covering around 5 acres of the estate and 100 acres of woodland, which had a signposted walk with a camp fire en route! Much missed.
But all is far from lost, here are seven great places to view snowdrops:
- Green Castle Woods, Carmarthenshire
- Plas Power Woods, Wrexham
- Marl Hall Woods, Conwy
- Lang Craigs, West Dunbartonshire
- Hackfall, North Yorkshire
- Nunsbrough, Northumberland
- The Nuttery, Northamptonshire.
And for something a bit special, have a look at the annual Ultimate Snowdrop Sale at Myddleton House Gardens in Enfield, Middlesex, this year on January 27th (sale is 10:30am–12pm, the gates & tearooms open at 7am).
You’ll find rare varieties that aren’t really sold in nurseries, and the event has built up a reputation over the years as the place to be for British galanthophiles. A single plant of one new variety sold there for £80 in 2017, so competition can be fierce: the organisers advise turning up early, as the sale is ‘fast and furious’!
Happy galanthophiling.
Is it true also that snowdrops sometimes ‘miss’ a year? I had some in my last garden which seemed to only come up every second year… thanks for this post it’s reminded me to place an order for these lovely little flowers
Sara, I hope you have ordered some, they are lovely. Snowdrops should flower every year being perennial, but there’s no accounting for nature! In fact they often multiply and spread over time.