The beauty of snowdrops

Snowdrops may have tiny, delicate flowers, but they are remarkably strong, hardy and reliable plants. Tamsin Hope Thomson reveals some of her favourite varieties

- Tamsin Hope Thomson

IT’S not hard to see why collectors are so passionate about snowdrops. From a distance you can see swathes of tiny white flowers nodding in the breeze. Look closer, though, and you’ll notice fascinating differences, from subtle ones like the tiny green marks on the inner petals, to bigger differences in the number of petals, colour of markings and petal shape.

Snowdrops are hardy, reliable and resilient. They will push through frozen ground and flower away through hail, rain and wind, bringing hopes of spring in the midst of winter. Yet the best thing about these plants is that they are low maintenance. Once planted, they will simply increase overtime to produce bigger and better displays.

Gardeners’ favourites

Snowdrop enthusiasts have been known to spend hundreds of pounds on one variety, but there are plenty of affordable snowdrops out there. It’s fun to go out and see if you can spot rare varieties, but there are many more that are easy to obtain and have remained on gardeners’ must-have lists for a reason. Varieties such as Galanthus ‘S. Arnott’ AGM, G. elwesii AGM and G. elwesii ‘Helen Tomlinson’ come up again and again.