Spot the Snowdrops
As you know, lots of snowdrops are being planted around the village, but it takes a long time to make an impact with such wee flowers - a decade or so to get that carpeting effect we're told. So let's keep planting!
Ardentinny Plants have donated a thousand snowdrops to the village each year for three years now.
Snowdrops are best planted 'in the green', which means just as the flowers are fading (they can be moved, or clumps split, carefully, while in full flower, if you have enough to divide and spread around). They like to be planted under shrubs which lose their leaves in winter. This is a good place in most people's gardens, as they are unlikely to be dug up by mistake here, and don't take up space which you might want for summer things. If you grow them in grass, do let the leaves die back before you give the grass it's first cut of the year - this nourishes the bulb, which can then produce bulblets and increase your stock.
The pure white flowers look beautiful planted among red dogwood stems in the garden, or with the black grass (ophiopogan nigrescens) in a pot by the front door. Best of all I think is a few in a little glass under a lamp on the bedside table, with a leaf of glossy ivy, or the marbled leaf of the arum (very easy to grow) which goes by the wonderful name of Arum italicum 'Marmoratum'!
Jenny and Freda.