It wasn’t the best day to go garden visiting – bitterly cold, unrelentingly grey and with fog at higher levels – but snowdrops always gladden the heart and Painswick Rococo Garden is known for a fabulous display.
It may be only early February but the show is already well on the road with this unusual Cotswold garden full of tiny white flowers.
“It got to Christmas and we were a bit concerned they might be early because it was so warm in November and December,” Dominic Hamilton, Painswick Rococo’s Garden Director, told me “but we’ve had lots of lovely cold weather then so they’re now about where we would expect them to be.”
Unlike other Cotswold snowdrop gardens, such as Colesbourne, the 10-acre Rococo is known not for the rareity of its flowers but for the sheer scale.
They fill the woodland in the garden, which nestles into a valley on the edge of Painswick. Most are the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, but the garden has around 15 varieties including a lot of ‘Atkinsii’, a tall snowdrop that was discovered at the Rococo in the 1800s by James Atkins who lived on the estate.
Over recent years, head gardener Roger Standley and his team have been extending the snowdrop display into other parts of the 18th century garden and they now encircle many of the quirky garden follies that make the Rococo special.
It was part of a movement that saw gardens as a theatrical display and eye-catching buildings such as the pale pink Eagle House and icing sugar white Exedra are a legacy of that idea.
In normal years, the Rococo can expect around 9,000 visitors through January and February and the snowdrop season is vital for funding the upkeep of the garden, which is run by a charitable trust.
“This would normally be the busiest time of the year and when we’d be making some money to help finance this year, which is not going to happen. It’s quite a headache.”
The current restrictions follow a difficult February last year, which was one of the wettest in memory.
“We ended the lockdown period with some headaches already because we hadn’t had quite the income we were needing,” said Dominic. “then we were closed for ten weeks and the weather was glorious. It would have been prime garden visiting time and we weren’t allowed to open.”
Luckily for the Rococo, the garden did prove popular with visitors once it was allowed to open and that, coupled with a public appeal, has helped the charity’s finances. A winter raffle is continuing the fundraising campaign.
Dominic is also hoping to be able to announce exciting new plans for the garden in the next few weeks.
Restrictions mean this year’s snowdrop season has to be run very differently. The garden is not open for its usual seven days a week with numbers restricted and limited to local visitors.
The long days of closure have meant the team are on top of winter maintenance and the garden is looking really good. It will be a real treat for those who can visit.
Painswick Rococo Garden is open for local exercise from Thursday to Sunday, 10am-3pm by advance booking only. Visitors need to book a time slot in advance and pay on arrival. More information is available on the website.