Snowdrop hunting

Today I've been over to Anglesey Abbey on what has become a bit of a ritual for this time of year - hunting for snowdrops. The Great British Gardens site is a great help. Besides snowdrops, there's a wonderful winter garden at Anglesey Abbey - very clever planting for colours, contrasts, fragrances and shapes. I note from my old blog that my previous few years' snowdrop trips to Audley End and Benington Lordship were quite a bit later than this one. Does this mean we're in for an early spring?

I've become fascinated by snowdrops. They don't grow well in my garden so I'm not a collector but happy to just see them growing elsewhere. I love to see them flowering early in the year as the days just start to lengthen - a very cheering sign of spring to come. I also find interesting the stories people tell about them. From the Abbey's leaflet :

"Snowdrops ...have a long association with monastic sites and are linked with the church festival of purification....snowdrops cross-pollinate easily, so wherever there are a number of varieties present there is a good chance that some new types will develop. The Anglesey Abbey collection now contains over 170 varieties..."

And from the Audley End website some time ago...

“The common snowdrop has been known throughout Europe for centuries and believed to have been grown from earliest medieval times. Then the soldiers returning from the Crimean War (1853 – 54) brought back snowdrops (theGalanthus plicatus) in their backpacks and by 1891 snowdrop passion had taken a firm hold.”