Colesbourne Park has long been one of my favourite Cotswold winter gardens so a chance to join its snowdrop study day was a real treat.
These days are always popular with galanthophiles (snowdrop fanatics). Typically, they consist of a couple of lectures from visiting speakers and a guided tour of Colesbourne’s garden and its collection – currently around 300 different varieties.
Much to my surprise, I was asked to talk at this year’s study day along with designer and writer Mary Keen, whose former Gloucestershire garden was somewhere I had written about many times in the past.
The day attracted a good crowd of galanthophiles with some travelling from Luxembourg and Germany. After my talk, head gardener Shane Ball and Lady Elwes, who lives at Colesbourne with her husband Sir Henry Elwes, led the tour of the 10-acre garden and woodland.
It was the first time I’d been this year and the display was looking good – lots of snowdrops and plenty of other early colour from cyclamen and Eranthis hyemalis (winter aconites).
I can remember the Spring Garden being made many years ago and it’s maturing well with a good spread of different snowdrops.
Snowdrop gardens often fall into one of two types: those with a specialist collection and those with a mass display. Colesbourne Park is unusual in that it does both.
The unusual snowdrops are mainly around the house but in the woodland there are drifts of white as far as you can see.
In her afternoon talk, Mary said that as a designer she favoured the common snowdrop, Galathanus nivalis, for creating a mass planting.
“It joins up in a wonderful spangly way,” she said, noting that other varieties tended to remain as separate clumps.
“More and more I’m interested in naturalising things,” she explained.
Her new Wiltshire garden is much smaller and we heard how she was learning about combining snowdrops with summer flowers. It seems they will hibernate quite happily over summer among perennials.
Top Three Snowdrops
Over lunch, I gave Lady Elwes the almost impossible task of choosing her top three snowdrops. These are what she says are her favourites – “at the moment”.
Her first choice was ‘S. Arnott’, a beautiful variety that is widely considered to be a classic snowdrop and one that is grown in huge numbers at Colesbourne.
“It is such a good doer. Tall, strong and reliable with such a wonderful scent.”
Her second choice was G. elwesii ‘Comet’, another popular snowdrop. Lady Elwes described it as “tall, and bold but beautiful”.
Her third choice was G. nivalis ‘Irish Green’, one I’d not come across before and a member of what galanthophiles call ‘the spikys’.
“It’s a snowdrop that looks like a hedgehog,” explained Lady Elwes. “It’s such a contrast to the perfection of ‘Comet'”
With Storm Dudley starting to blow through the garden, ‘Irish Green’ resembled a somewhat windswept hedgehog and the rest of the snowdrops were dancing in the breeze. None of that detracted from the display and a great outing.
Colesbourne Park has two more open days in 2022 on Saturday and Sunday February 26 and 27. More details on the website here.
Enjoyed this? Read about more of my garden visits here.
Make sure you don’t miss future posts by signing up for an email alert.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022 Mandy Bradshaw
Thank you for your eloquent report of a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Thank you! It was a great outing 🙂