Snowdrops... jewels in the winter garden
Debbie Thomson visits four Essex gardens to appreciate the season’s delights and to meet the gardeners who tend them
For many, February is the time to venture out into the garden again and to be amazed at what is bursting into life: tiny flowers undeterred by the whims of the British weather that bring joy to all who see them.
The National Garden Scheme (NGS) has been championing its festival of snowdrops since 2016, when it first came into being as part of the Year of the English Garden. To concentrate on snowdrops though is to miss so much in the garden that can delight at this time of year through scent, structure, colour and movement. Four gardens in Essex are opening during February, each with plenty to offer, with fine displays of snowdrops as well as many other beautiful plants.
Dragons
In Boyton Cross just outside Chelmsford, garden owner Margot Grice delights in all that her garden offers in the winter months, as well as championing the snowdrop in its many forms.
Margot is a serious collector of snowdrops and has many hundreds around the garden, but uses the front garden for the main winter display. Here, named varieties are grown and later individually deadheaded so that they remain true. To best show off these delightful white flowers, she mulches the ground beneath them with a municipal compost because of its dark black colour – an inspired touch.
The snowdrops are accompanied by hellebores, which have their leaves cut back in November and December so that the flowers are visible and the snowdrops are not smothered. It makes a breath-taking spectacle.
The back garden is less curated. Here, the more common varieties of snowdrops are left to do their own thing amongst self-seeded cyclamens with their delicately veined arrow head leaves. Smaller bulbs such as scilla and aconites, which have multiplied in their hundreds over the years, clothe the area around the pond.
‘This is a quiet and special time of year,’ Margot says. ‘Winter gardens allow us to enjoy the minutiae not just of snowdrops but of the beautiful leaf forms of arums, cyclamens and heuchera, as well as berries and the wonderful bark of the acer griseum.’
She has created structure with viburnums, daphnes and a sarcococca named Dragon Gate, and while she claims she is an enthusiast for every season in the garden, she loves the winter for the time it offers to really look. ‘It’s a quiet time allowing me to appreciate the little things that would seem insignificant during the summer.’
Grove Lodge
Grove Lodge in Saffron Walden is a place where wildlife is always welcome. Here, owner Chris Shennan has created a garden that is as enchanting in winter as it is throughout the rest of the year, and it attracts a wide variety of wildlife in spite of its position in the centre of a bustling market town. Over the years, he has noted 17 different species of butterflies and 58 birds, plus bees and hoverflies; ponds, wood piles and hedging provide plenty of hiding spaces for them.
As the year begins, the garden is home to drifts of yellow-flowered winter aconites, these are followed by carpets of snowdrops, which have been lifted and divided over the years and now make a real impact. Crocus and daffodils follow, all thriving on the light, free-draining soil that not many residents of Essex would recognise.
This is not to say that the garden has been handed over for nature to do its own thing. It has been carefully planned to take its structure from a trio of mature trees and has a considered planting scheme of evergreen and winter-flowering shrubs.
‘I have positioned the sarcococca or sweet box plants where their delicious scent can be best appreciated,’ Chris says. ‘They do really well here, and the intense fragrance that comes from the minute white flowers in early winter is a joy. This is layered with the intense perfume from the Daphne ‘Jacqueline Postill’ growing by the back terrace, which can be fully enjoyed on calm days.’ Alongside these are other winter stalwarts such as yew hedging, viburnum, mahonias and shrubby semi-deciduous honeysuckles.
Chris gardens with nature, allowing plants to self-seed. ‘In fact, self-seeded plants are always welcome as they tend to do so much better,’ he says. Hellebores have spread around the light soil in this way, working as ideal companions to the snowdrops but lasting long after the snowdrops have finished.
Longyard Cottage
Longyard Cottage is a garden in Nazeing where the most important thing for the owners, Jackie and John Copping, when they started planning it, was the flow. However, they also knew it had to be an all-year-round space, constantly providing something of interest. With her design skills, Jackie has used paths, trees and evergreen structure, as well as managed grasses and perennials, to offer interest that more often than not offers a genuine wow factor.
Winter, however, is a special time for Jackie. She says, ‘It’s always a surprise after Christmas when the precious white snowdrops start to appear, unharmed and unbruised by whatever wind and rain has been thrown at them. It is magical – just how they have survived.’
They are in good company with hellebores, some of which are left so that the green seed heads can be enjoyed while the excess are taken out. There are also early-flowering crocus and a growing carpet of cyclamen. They are restricted to a manageable area though – being able to walk around the garden easily is important to them both.
The snowdrops are split to help spread the delicate carpet of white flowers, which enjoy the ground under the white trunks of silver birch. ‘I always want something to look at,’ Jackie continues. ‘I leave the miscanthus as long as I can, cutting them down so that just the canes are showing; they sometimes turn red if it is cold enough. And I love the soft movement of the willow trees.’
Should it snow, the shape of the bay spirals is accentuated, and Jackie remembers times when the wooden table and chairs have looked as if they are set with a four-inch cloth and cushions. As spring arrives, this structure gradually disappears and by summer, it has been enveloped by the new green growth of perennials and trees.
Horkesley Hall
This garden in Little Horkesley offers snowdrops on a larger scale. Here, owner Polly Eddis cannot hide her enthusiasm for her garden in this season. ‘This is when the garden brings me the most joy,’ she says. ‘I love walking through the garden in the winter – there is so much excitement in seeing what appears.’
And with more than 100 specialist varieties of snowdrops, including those with fabulous names such as Fatty Puff, Diggory, Grumpy and Wasp (which seen in a group in a breeze really do look waspish), there will be plenty for visitors to look out for.
The snowdrops form part of the Winter Wander – a walk (where dogs on leads are welcome) that allows you to wonder at the beauty of the austere lake and everything going on around it. As well as snowdrops, there is colour from cyclamen, camellias and daphne. There are also some marvellous trees, including eucalyptus that look as if they have been spray painted and a large parrotia with clusters of tiny crimson flowers on its bare stems.
The tradition is to end this winter walk in the church next door with hot chocolate and homemade cakes, as well as perusing a plant stall stocked with snowdrops and other bulbs from the garden. ‘It has an amazing atmosphere,’ says Polly. ‘As the light is fading outside, we all congregate in the warm and celebrate the end of winter.’
Susan Copeland, the county organiser for the National Garden Scheme in Essex, is full of optimism for the year ahead. ‘I am so pleased with the range of gardens we have opening for the Snowdrop Festival this year, from a country walk to a large town garden offering the opportunity to discover so many exquisite and unusual varieties of snowdrops, as well as ideas for creating a wonderful winter garden. It’s the perfect reason to venture outside during February.’
NGS open days in February
Dragons in Boyton Cross, Chelmsford, February 8
Grove Lodge in Saffron Walden, February 12 and 19
Longyard Cottage in Nazeing, February 19
Horkesley Hall in Little Horkesley, February 25
Full details, including opening times, admission prices and details of how to book private group visits with selected gardens, available at ngs.org.uk. Keep an eye on social media for extra pop-up openings @essexngs
