Having sadly had to cancel last year’s event due to storm damage, it was an absolute pleasure to welcome over 400 people to our much-anticipated Snowdrop Spectacular at Thenford on Saturday 11th February. There was a buzz right from the start with stall holders setting up early and visitor cars arriving in multitudes. It was all hands on deck with family, staff and volunteers supervising the parking and overseeing refreshments.
The crème de la crème of snowdrop growers and nurseries were present, including Mr Snowdrop himself, Joe Sharman from Monksilver Nursery, Paul Barney from Edulis Nursery and Chris Ireland-Jones from Avon bulbs, to name a few. For sale were not only hundreds of snowdrop varieties but also a selection of other winter flowering specimens including some lovely hellebores, miniature irises and some wonderfully scented paperwhite narcissus. As any galanthophile will tell you, you can never have too many snowdrops and the tempting selection meant that not many people went home empty-handed! Eagle-eyed visitors would have spotted a number of well-known Head Gardeners and garden designers amongst the visitors, including Simon Bagnall from Worcester College, Rupert Golby and Jenny Barnes from Daylesford, and Jimi Blake from Hunting Brook gardens in Ireland.
Our smart new visitor centre was put to the test, providing plenty of seating both inside as well as outside in the courtyard, beside the lecture barn. Speakers included Assistant Head Gardener and galanthophile, Emma Thick, who spoke about the hundreds of named varieties within the arboretum and gardens. Emma’s talk included anecdotes about the garden and her favourite snowdrop varieties, including tips on propagation and planting. Emma had put together a slideshow which clearly showed the wide range of snowdrops and the variations between them such as colour, markings, leaf shape and size. Due to the scale and size of the Thenford collection, Emma tries to group the varieties, so that any new snowdrops that pop up in the wrong place can hopefully be identified and moved. Snowdrops are particularly promiscuous, so this is an important part of Emma’s job. Removing these unintended seedlings helps to maintain the purity of our snowdrop collection. Emma also highlighted the fact that winter gardens don’t always have to be green and white, citing miniature cyclamen (Cyclamen coum) as a favourite for adding a splash of colour.
Lord Heseltine’s talk on the history of Thenford Arboretum drew the crowds in, and he was surprised to find that a microphone was required so that the people listening outside could hear him! Lord Heseltine’s love of gardening stemmed from an early age when he was given a packet of seeds and a patch of ground upon which to sow them – six weeks later he had produced flowers – and so the gardening bug began. His talk was peppered with anecdotes about how the arboretum and gardens have evolved. “Anyone interested in wilding – Thenford was exactly that when we first arrived; completely overgrown with medieval fishponds so silted up you could walk across them”. The audience were interested to hear how named snowdrops first arrived at Thenford, thanks to Sir Henry and the late Lady Caroline Elwes who gifted a small number of Galanthus – and thus the collection started.
Part of the Snowdrop Spectacular included entrance to the gardens and arboretum where visitors of all ages could be spotted exploring the grounds, with families playing hide-and-seek in the sculpture garden and galanthophiles on their hands and knees, photographing and examining different varieties of snowdrop.
If you missed our Snowdrop Spectacular, there are two other snowdrop days coming up on 18th and 21st February as well as other open days planned throughout the year. Please click here to book your ticket.
Planning for next year’s Snowdrop Spectacular has already begun. This is scheduled to take place on Saturday 10th February 2024, so watch this space for further details.
