There’s something reassuring about Nature I thought as I wandered around Colesbourne Park. The seasons change and plants reappear no matter what’s going on in the world.
It has a particular poignancy this year at Colesbourne Park, which is open for the first time without Carolyn Elwes, who died suddenly just before Christmas. Lady Elwes and her husband Sir Henry created what is now one of the Cotswolds’ best-known snowdrop gardens with a collection of around 300 different varieties.
“It’s a wonderful legacy,” says her son, Freddie. “She was the one who started this off back in the 80s. She’ll forever remembered as a galanthophile but this is the physical remembrance of it.”
Another change since my visit last year to speak at Colesbourne’s snowdrop study day (read about it here) is the arrival of new Head Gardener Katie Reynolds.
She’s hard at work, checking through the collection and making sure it’s correctly labelled – snowdrops have a habit of wandering and cross-pollinating, while strimmers, mowers and pheasants tend to dislodge labels.
She’s also making plans for revamping some areas, such as the Spring Garden where the aim is to bring some of the more unusual snowdrops further forward in the borders and to introduce more early colour.
Despite having been at Colesbourne only a few months, she’s already getting the snowdrop bug and is starting to hunt out new varieties to extend the collection.
“It’s a special garden,” she says. “It’s a privilege to be looking after it.”
One of the things that makes Colesbourne special is the way it spans both types of snowdrop garden – those that have a mass display and those that have something a bit different.
Colesbourne has both: vast drifts of snowdrops through the woodland and unusual varieties that are not as commonly seen.
The cold weather in December has slowed the display and not everything was out when I visited last week – although such is the breadth of Colesbourne’s collection, the display season is long.
Its memorable naturalised cyclamen were in full bloom and there were plenty of hellebores but I was too early for the Crocus tommasinianus and the winter aconites weren’t fully open.
Finally, no visit to Colesbourne Park is complete without going down to the lake. The blue water is even better in winter and beautifully sets off the trees and, of course, the snowdrops.
Colesbourne Park is open on Saturdays and Sundays until February 26. Full details are on the website.
Enjoyed this? You can read about more of my garden visits here.
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023 Mandy Bradshaw
Well done Mandy, and many thanks. Your photo of the blue lake looks unreal but isn’t ! Henry E
It really is an outstanding feature. 🙂
If only it was closer to me! I’m not a galanthophile, but I do like the carpets of snowdrops and this year I have noticed that many places have the delightful cyclamen coum interspersed with them.
Perhaps you need a winter weekend in the Cotswolds 🙂 We’ve got lots of great gardens to visit at this time of year.
It looks like a beautiful place to visit and the Snowdrops are wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
Glad you liked the post 🙂