Snowdrops our February friends
Several parts of my plant world seem to have come together in one flower this week. On Tuesday I took a picture of one of the few snowdrops currently flowering in the garden at the Museum of Homelessness. I love this plant, it is such a symbol of hope and the promise of things to come. It won’t be a lonely snowdrop for long because Jess with the help and advice of Sean, the Head gardener at the Inner Temple, has ordered 2000 in the green. Sean is also going to the MOH garden next week to help her and the team learn how to plant them, ahead of a snowdrop planting day next Sunday.
A lone snowdrop at the MOH garden and ‘Antrym’ just one of 1501 different snowdrops at Thenford.
The next day I arrived early at Thenford Arboretum for a Garden Media Guild trip I had organised to see…snowdrops. Thenford holds a National Collection which also links to my new role as a trustee of the charity Plant Heritage and it is always fascinating to talk to the people who hold these national collections. I had visited Thenford last Summer and one of the gardeners had told me that if I wanted to see the snowdrops I should come back in February and be sure to talk to Emma.
Ten years ago when Emma Thick started working at the garden, developed by Lord Heseltine and his wife, there were 350 different snowdrops, now there are 1501! When I met Emma, who was wearing the most wonderful snowdrop hat knitted by her mum, she told me: “I do not like being called the Snowdrop Queen that’s for sure, I much prefer a snowdrop shepherd. I like to look over them and shepherd them rather than rule them”. ‘They’, the snowdrops, are roaming all around the garden and are all beautifully labelled. Apparently, as Rupert Heseltine told me, his father, Lord Heseltine sits with the very noisy labelling machine, doing this important work.
As I talked to Emma in the walled garden, recording our conversation for an Offshoot episode, she explained how her passion began with a snowdrop that her mum gave her that she couldn’t immediately identify and the first snowdrop bulb she bought cost her £20 and she and her mum went halves on it! Seeing the delicate flowers through her eyes I began to see little details I had not noticed before, faces on the petals which are not actually petals but tepals. She talked about how they spread or sometimes if they are ‘miffy’ don’t spread! She admitted that she has a better eye for snowdrop ‘faces’ than she does for human faces. But it is not just the snowdrops that are the Febuary friends, it is also the other galanthophiles who gather and share their passion in this month. (Apparently if you want to spot a galanthophile look for the muddy trouser knees, evidence of time spent kneeing on the grass gazing at the intricate differences between flowers.) Emma and her mum still go to snowdrop events together, though now they each buy their own bulbs, saving up for those £60 specials.
I do hope you will enjoy listening to Emma’s Offshoot as much as I enjoyed recording it. Do follow the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts and that way you will never miss one of these Offshoot episodes. My plan is to do some editing over the next day or so, so as to get this Offshoot out there next week. I think it may inspire others to go in search of some snowdrops to plant in their garden - you can never have too many ‘February friends’.
Have a lovely weekend.
Sally x
ps It was great to see Our Plant Stories reviewed by Miranda Sawyer in the Observer on Sunday at the weekend. She confessed she doesn’t have a garden and is “far from understanding the less accelerated joys of horticultural life” but “its the vibes I enjoy”.