It has been a wonderful snowdrop year. Why? Perhaps last year's hot summer baked the dormant bulbs as is normal in their natural habitats in Greece, Turkey and eastern Europe. Rain came in abundance in the autumn when they would have been putting down roots. So the...

Despite endless rain followed by bitter cold and freezing ground the snowdrops keep appearing and Oh they are so good to see! The very earliest, Donald Sims, Mrs Macnamara and Three Ships, are over. But now we are seeing more and more of the most ravishing varieties....

How my heart lifts to see the first snowdrops and they have appeared on time which was a relief after the extraordinary weather in 2022. I don't really count the autumn flowerers as they come too early to spark optimism but Donald Sims began to flower at the end of...

2022 has been an extraordinary year which has tested the garden hard. I have been keeping rainfall records for over 20 years and have never experienced 32 days without any rain at all as we had here in July and August. And the extreme heat added another dimension. Now...

It is hard to decide what is the best thing about the month of May but I think peonies must win the prize. The early tree peony Lutea, its yellow flowers gone almost before you have seen them, our various plants of seed grown (I know I should not boast but I am rather...

This has been an extraordinary season. In January it was so cold that we feared there would be little to see on our snowdrop open days. Then a week of warm weather brought many snowdrops into flower and they were looking brilliant for the NGS days. Since then we have...

Dreadful weather with storms Eunice and Franklin doing their worst has spoilt the end of the snowdrop season. Galanthophiles are a hardy bunch of necessity but there is no pleasure at all in walking slowly to peer at clumps of snowdrops while huddling in a heavy coat...

Our NGS open days have come and gone. The weather was reasonably kind and we enjoyed seeing old friends and some new ones too united in a love for these remarkable plants which provide cheerfulness and hope on gloomy days. Our copse is now filling up with snowdrop...

Several weeks of cold weather with hard frosts and clear skies at night and some wonderful sunsets put the snowdrops on hold and I was beginning to get anxious about our National Gardens Scheme open days on 5th - 7th February. Fortunately this last week has been mild...

It is now less than two weeks until our NGS open days. it has been cold so our snowdrops seem to be a little late this year but we think there should be plenty in flower for the snowdrop weekend on 5 - 7 February. Some old friends are appearing and it is lovely to...