GINA PARKINSON profiles what must be one of the nation’s favourite winter flowers.

THE snowdrop has to be one of our favourite winter flowers. At a glance the garden is looking drab, then up pop clumps of white flowers.

To begin with we see only the sharp pointed tips of the leaves breaking through the surface of the soil. These are joined by thin flower stems topped with a small swelling.

By the time we get to February, the first of these have broken open and the pure white flower is released to dangle from the stem tip.

Snowdrops are bulbs and belong to the Galanthus family. There are a number of varieties and species, the most readily recognisable being the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis. Growing around 15cm/6ins tall the flowers are purest white save for the green tips on the three inner petals.

Galanthus elwesii is a taller species with large flowers hence the common name of greater snowdrop, while the blooms of Galanthus S.Arnott are honey-scented.

More unusual snowdrops include several yellow marked varieties such as G. nivalis Sandersii group and double-flowered Lady Elphinstone. Other doubles include Pusey Green Tip and Flore Pleno.

Plant Profile: Snowdrop

Genus: Galanthus.

Family: Amaryllidacae.

Common name: Snowdrop.

Height: 15cm high or more according to species.

Width: Usually planted in small clumps which slowly spread to cover large areas as seedlings mature. This will take a number of years.

Form: Dwarf bulbous perennial.

Planting: Usually done ‘in the green’ just after flowering but when the leaves are intact. Dry bulbs are planted in September and October.

Soil and site: Moist, humus-rich in light shade preferred.

Planting companions: Looks good planted under deciduous shrubs and with other small early-flowering plants, such as winter aconite and violas.


Snowdrop garden

DRIFTS of established snowdrops can be seen in Devonshire Mill garden on Canal Lane, in Pocklington, which will be open to visitors on Sunday, February 16.

The snowdrops are in old orchards and among hellebores and ferns in woodland, set around a 200-year-old Grade 2 listed watermill.

The mill stream runs along the length of the garden which has been developed along organic lines for the past 20 years to encourage wildlife.

The garden is open under the National Gardens Scheme and entrance is £3. Homemade teas will be on sale.


Weekend catch-up

It is time to get seed- potato orders in for postal delivery. Garden centres and nurseries should have plenty in stock, but mail- order suppliers will start to sell out of popular or more unusual varieties. We are growing Sarpo Mira again this year, which has been ordered online, and the old favourite Charlotte, which we will buy locally.

Charlotte is such a good potato with a very long season, from small earthy new spuds through to big tubers at the end of the season.


Gardening talk

ORGANIC gardener Tony Chalcraft will give an illustrated talk and demonstration, with tasting samples, entitled Winter Salads – Inside and Out on Tuesday at Askham Bryan College, Askham Bryan. Organised by Askham Bryan College Gardening Club, the talk will begin at 7.30pm in the conference hall.

Tony has a large productive fruit and vegetable garden in Knapton Lane on the edge of York, where he cultivates a large range of soft fruit, hardy and tender vegetables and more than 40 different varieties of apples and pears.

Beds and borders of flowering plants and shrubs add more colour and interest, and provide a habitat for wildlife. The garden is part of the National Gardens Scheme and will be open in July.

Tickets to the talk are free to gardening club members and £5 for non-members at the door. Complimentary tea and coffee will be served at the end of the meeting and new members are always welcome. Further details from David Whiteman on 01904 707208.


In the veg patch

WHAT a difference a year makes. This time 12 months ago we hardly ventured outside and the snow-laden garden was no place to be unless we were cosily wrapped and booted.

Last weekend we managed to dig over the vegetable patch, ready for potatoes to be planted in a couple of months. How quickly do weeds take over?

The area was cleared last autumn but still they have managed to invade most of the patch. It took a couple of hours each day to get the soil cleared, even with willing help from the (occasional) under gardener.

Although the potatoes won’t be going in the same place as last year, their old spot was also sorted out and we found enough spuds for half-a-dozen meals.

No matter how carefully the crop is lifted in July there are always some escapees. The relatively warm winter and our free-draining soil have kept them safe for months.


Gardening TV and radio

Sunday

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis. Gardening ideas and features from around North Yorkshire.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Panellists Matt Biggs, Christine Walkden, Matthew Wilson and chairman Eric Robson answer questions from the audience at Hercules Hall, Portmeirion, Gwynedd.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chairman Eric Robson and his team of gardening experts advise gardeners from Lowestoft, Suffolk. With Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood and Anne Swithinbank.