Unexpected discoveries are one of the best things about my job. Usually it’s a new garden that turns out to be better than I’d hoped but this week it’s The Picton Garden, somewhere I know well, that’s surprised me.
Part of Old Court Nurseries, it’s home to the National Collection of Michaelmas daisies with the more than 430 varieties giving a spectacular autumn show. I knew there were some snowdrops in the garden but hadn’t realised the scale of the collection or quite how well they’re displayed.
Vivid cornus stems, winter flowering heathers, jewel-like dots of cerise, yellow and purple from cyclamen, crocus and iris, the borders were fizzing with colour. It may be a cold February day but there’s nothing grey about the show.
It’s been created by Helen Picton, the third generation to run the nursery at Colwall, and her husband Ross Barbour. Ross had collected snowdrops since the late 1990s while working at Ragley Hall. By the time he joined Helen at The Picton Garden, he had nearly 100 varieties and had added them to the garden. She soon caught the snowdrop bug and the collection has grown since then to more than 300 varieties today.
“When there’s two of you collecting, there’s no end to it. There’s no one to tell you off,” Ross laughs as he shows me around.
Over the years, they have gradually filled the one-and-a-half-acre garden, discovering areas where the snowdrops do best – a shady, cold and damp border now has tough Galanthus nivalis and Galanthus plicatus rather than more fussy varieties.
Elsewhere, the snowdrops are in beds that will later be filled with asters and other perennials.
“We’re starting to run out of the prime spots for them,” says Ross.
Most of them are in the woodland garden, an area that had become overgrown as Helen’s parents, Paul and Meriel, headed towards retirement.
“I had an idea of a winter garden in here so cleared it,” says Ross. “It was a box of matches and a chainsaw.”
What’s been left are the lovely trees Paul planted, which give the woodland garden shelter and structure. Into this have gone the snowdrops and many other tiny treasures.
“What I strive at here is just to try to fill every single available little space with some kind of gem.”
These gems include crocus in every hue, dainty Iris reticulata, cyclamen – as good for their leaves as for their flowers – narcissi and Eranthis hyemalis, or winter aconites.
More colour comes from cornus, grasses and hamamelis (witch hazel), while several euonymus will add to the autumn display.
While snowdrop-hunting often involves getting low to the ground, it does pay to look up as winter stars such as Prunus mume start to flower.
Many of the bulbs are being allowed to naturalise and there are sizeable drifts of things such as Crocus tommansinianus and Crocus sieberi ‘Firefly’, something I’ve recently added to my garden.
Yet, it’s the snowdrops that hold the spotlight and there are so many delights to find. The names and the stories behind the individual varieties are fascinating. Ross particularly likes those that are named after other collectors, or birds – his first collectable snowdrop was ‘Lapwing’.
I like those with delicate green markings, such as ‘Rosemary Burnahm’ and loved the idea of a snowdrop being called ‘Nothing Special’. Nothing could be further from the truth.
More aptly named is ‘Grumpy’. Just look at that face!
“I used to hate this time of year,” admits Ross. “I used to be in the house and didn’t really have any inspiration to go outside but now we’re out here on our hands and knees in December looking for noses before they’re even through the soil.”
The Picton Garden is open for the National Garden Scheme on February 13 and 27, as well as other dates throughout the year. More information, and the nursery opening details, are available on the website.
You can read more of my garden visits here.
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