At this time of year, gardens all around the country open specially so that visitors can enjoy their spectacular displays of snowdrops, joyfully signalling that spring is on its way
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Blossoming snowdrop flowers (Galanthus) stand in Gador
Credit: Tibor Rosta
These early flowering spring bulbs were probably the first flowers I identified. I was a very short-sighted child – and as a consequence was often flat on my face. My mother thought I was just extraordinarily clumsy.
I will always love snowdrops but, as Anna Pavord points out, to be a snowdrop buff you need special qualities: “A circulation system of cast iron and brilliant eyesight.” Perhaps because I have neither, the big white sheets of “ordinary” snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis), are still my favourites.
Our family lived in the Cotswolds near Bath, and grassy banks with limy soil encouraged the “native” G. nivalis to flourish and make large drifts. It is now thought that it is not really native but has naturalised, having arrived around the 1500s.