Winter drifts

This snowdrop season has started disastrously for galanthophiles, I am sorry to have to report. That is because the important weekend of 8 and 9 February, when a number of organised get-togethers were planned, was memorable for low night temperatures (–9�C in my garden in the Midlands on 7 February) and the depth and lasting nature of the snow. My snowdrops were completely covered by it but, even if they had not been, they would have been prostrate and cowed by the intense cold.

Never mind, there is hope for warmer weather now and there are plenty of snowdrop gardens opening this weekend and, in some cases, on later dates in February and early March. Anyone who wants to know what all the fuss is about could choose to visit, for example, Colesbourne Park, Gloucestershire, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, Rode Hall, Cheshire, Hodsock Priory, Nottinghamshire, Hopton Hall in Derbyshire or Cambo Estate, near St Andrews in Fife (check garden websites for details). These will be a ‘Magnet’ to galanthophiles, who will see a ‘Proliferation’ of snowdrops, with many coming up ‘Trumps’. With luck, and kind weather gods, there should be a ‘Karneval’ in these ‘Pastures Green’.