The twisted grey leaves indicate that this is the species gracilis, a lovely small snowdrop with beautiful clear markings on the inner petals.

Lovely green marking, all down the inner petals. This is just 2 yrs old and has now put up 2 flower buds, hope it continues to increase like this. The name Ding Dong is explained by the fact that it comes from Avon Bulbs in Somerset ( I get most of my snowdrop bulbs from them), think back to the Avon cosmetics TV advert in the 70′s, you would have to be a certain age to understand!!

This one is called Lapwing and I think has a rather nice marking on the inner petals.

Still havn’t identified this one, can anyone help please, quite tall with very grey leaves.

A large double, Desdemona, increases nicely, looks lovely when fully open in the sunshine. I don’t have many doubles as I feel they look rather similar.

A very tall snowdrop with large flowers and a fantastic marking on the inner petals. John Gray was the first special one that I bought, it has a lot to answer for!

A tiny snowdrop, a species Galanthus rizehensis, lovely little one which increases well when happy, I think mine are happy!

Another that is very happy and gets split for open days is Magnet. This has increased really well and is now forming nice large clumps. I split mine when flowering is over and the leaves are just starting to turn yellow, I feel that the leaves have now fed the bulbs for next year and it doesn’t seem to do the bulbs any harm as they always flower again the following year without any problem. There is a feeling now that we should leave them to be dormant before splitting them, this would mean digging them up in the summer when I would never be able to find them, think I will stay with the old method as that is what works for me!

This is still Magnet, showing the extra long pedicel which joins the flower to the flower stalk. Because the pedicel is so long, the slightest breeze makes the flowers dance as if they are a cloud of butterflies!

Very new, just planted last year, Modern Art. The leaves are grey with a silver stripe down the centre.

Alison Hilary, another nice one, just starting to increase well.

Straffan is being over run by Milleum effusum aureum, must do a bit of judicious weeding before the snowdrop gets choked to death!

Robin Hood is another tall snowdrop and another of my first ones. I wish this had opened up so that I could show you the markings inside, maybe next time.

Another of my early purchases, Merlin, the first one I bought with all green inner petals. This is quite a tall snowdrop, but hasn’t increased as fast as some of the others unfortunately. In the background you can just see some of the wild snowdrops just starting to show, they are coming on time, have never known the others to be so early.

Showing the really dark green of the inner petals on Merlin.

This one is Augustus and has quite rounded flowers compared to some of the others and the leaves have a silver stripe down the centre. The outer petals have the texture of seer sucker material.

Another species, Galanthus woronowii, which has very dark green shiny leaves. I have found that this one is seeding around and has now formed 3 distinct clumps – lovely!

Another double, but not as tall as Desdemona is Hippolyta. The petals are quite heavily ridged on this bulb that is increasing nicely.

These are all the snowdrops that are flowering at the moment. There are lots more still to come and of course the wild ones which will make the woodland look as if we have had a sprinkling of snow, should open in another couple of weeks, will keep you up to date. Do you still think that they are all the same, I hope not!!

Mahonia Charity is still carrying on flowering long after it should have stopped.

The wild snowdrop is only just starting to show above ground, all the ones that are flowering now are special ones. I did have them all labelled, very tastefully with black labels and silver writing, but most of them seem to be missing, where have they all gone!! Will have to get my large snowdrop book out and re-identify them all and then make a map of where they are all planted!

I think this one is John Gray.

Is this Atkinsii, I think so, a good one that increases quite quickly.

A clump of one of the Greatorex doubles, Hyppolyta or Desdemona,  from its size, I think it is Desdemona. I won’t bore you with any more snowdrops until I have managed to re-identify them.

One of the Camellias has been flowering since December, the others have nice fat buds but are not showing any flowers yet.

Another that was in flower before Christmas is Narcissus Rijnveld’s Early Sensation.

Rosa Graham Thomas just refuses to stop flowering, and there are so many buds forming too. It was cut back by half in November, but has put out lots more new shoots, just hope it won’t regret it later.

The same has happened to the Anthemis in the front garden, it just doesn’t want to stop flowering!

Hellebores are now starting to flower in all the shady borders.

Some of them are the most delicious plum colour.

Some are double, pink outside and white within, absolutely gorgeous!

And some are spotted, will do a separate post about these lovely plants when they are all flowering in February.

The small Sarcococca bush that we have, just inside the woodland strip, might have rather insignificant flowers, but they certainly pump out the perfume! On a still day the perfume hangs around in the air and people wonder where it is coming from , not realising that it comes from such tiny flowers.

The summer snowflake, Leucojum aestivum,  is another flower that was flowering before Christmas!! Have just noticed that the spring snowflake, L.vernum, has put out its first flower, but it has a lot of catching up to do.

The tassels on Garrya elliptica are getting longer each day.  When we went to Rosemoor the other day , the RHS have a fantastic bush at the entrance with the most amazingly long tassels, put mine to shame!

Choisya ternata just gets better and better, it never seems to want to stop flowering.

Another little bush that is thoroughly confused, Convolvulous cneorum. This little plant just keeps  forming more and more flower buds, how do I stop it!

One plant that should be flowering now is Iris unguicularis, this has put flowers out since December, they don’t last long, only a day or two, but with so many buds there are always flowers showing, brightening up a dull day.

I know there are a few flowers that I forgot to photograph, the Japanese azalea, is now covered in blooms for example, but these are most of what is in flower at the moment here in the SW corner of the UK. Thank you to Carol at Maydreams Garden  for hosting this GBBD, to see more flowers, please go to http:// www.maydreamsgardens.com to see what is blooming around the world.

Once flowering is over and before the leaves die down seems to be the best time to do this , they call this ” in the green ” and is also the best time to plant new bulbs so that they will soon settle in and build up reserves ready for flowering next year.

First of all, choose your clump to split, I usually split large clumps every 3 or 4 yrs.Find a reluctant husband to do the digging so that you can take the photos ! Make sure he digs deep enough, the bulbs are quite a way down.

Carry them over to a table so that you can split them. Just get your thumbs in between the bulbs and prise them gently apart. Husband had vanished by now so no photo of this being done !

This one clump has formed about a dozen new little clumps containing about 4 or 5 bulbs each

and were taken straight away ( mustn’t let them dry out ) over to where we had plenty of space, the area where we removed a pyracantha bush last autumn.

Plant them nice and deep in their new home

making sure that you cover all the white on the leaves and stems

and then just leave them to settle in and for the leaves to die back to replenish the bulbs so that you will have a wonderful display next year.

Just think, these tiny clumps will themselves need splitting in a few years time and again in a few years after that, then maybe we will all have drifts like these at Colesbourne Park.

Apparantly the fallen branch that you see here came down the day before their first open day, 5th Feb. They were so thankful that the public were not there at the time and it was only the snowdrops that got squashed !!!

As well as the various snowdrops which were everywhere, no matter where you looked, other small bulbs have been planted to form a  contrast of colour. These are the winter aconite, Eranthis hyemalis, looking much happier here than in my garden, and spreading around beautifully.

This clump of snowdrops was labeled ” Diggory ” and they are absolutely gorgeous. Only small in stature but they made up for that in having such fantastic round flowers.

Another general view of the woodland walk in the Park, the snowdrops here are ” James Backhouse”. This was formerly known as” Atkinsii” and is good for naturalising.

This is a view of “S.Arnott “, literally thousands of them and Colesbourne Park is reputed to have the best display of them in the country, I can believe it. While Ray and I were standing and admiring them we got into conversation with a charming gentleman and we agreed what a really good snowdrop it was and should be in everyones collection. It turned out that it was Sir Henry Elwes, the owner of Colesbourne Park and we both have them up our drives, mine is a much shorter drive than his!

More “S.Arnott” this time with cyclamen coum for company. There are lots of Cyclamen coum planted around the garden but also we saw lots of leaves of cyclamen hederifolium which flower in the autumn so with all the autumn tints this must be just as colourful later in the year.

Drifts of snowflakes, Leucojum vernum, hundreds of them, will mine ever spread to look as good as these, one day maybe.

On a steep bank we found a drift of Scilla siberica , such a tiny plant but what a fantastic colour blue. At home mine are not even showing yet.

In a glade beneath the very tall trees was a drift of Crocus  tommasineanus, hundreds of them. What a pity the sun wasn’t shining, they would have all opened up and looked a lot happier, even so , a beautiful scene.

Another general view of the woodland walk, snowdrops as far as the eye can see.

And even more bulbs, who can possibly say that gardens are boring in the winter !

These tiny little narcissus are not open properly yet, but I think they might be Narcissus cyclamineus where the outer petals will be swept back in line with the trumpet.Gorgeous little things.

Another large patch of Cyclamen coum, fantastic for contrasting with all the snowdrops.

Found a few Iris ” Katharine Hodgkin” in a border near to the house. Very understated and very beautiful.

Also saw a few Hellebores, like us , their hellebores are not firing on all cylinders yet. The  weather  in December and January has certainly held them back. We need another week of milder weather and then they will open properly.

The final part of our visit was to walk down by the lake at Colesbourne Park, even in the winter with no leaves on the trees it was so beautiful. The lake is very blue apparantly due to particles of clay suspended in the water, whatever the reason, it is a lovely shade of blue.

This was our final view before turning back towards the car park and the sales table! Did I succumb to temptation…….what do you think…….of course I did!!! My new snowdrops are “Colossus”, very tall and early flowering, should be out by Christmas, weather permitting. Also ” Lord Lieutenant ” which has horizontal flowers and commemorates Sir Henry  Elwes’ position as Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire. My last one is “Lapwing” which has the most unusual inner markings and has been on my wish list for a long time.

While walking back to the car park,  past the Tea Room, a lady came out , wearing her apron, and got talking about the garden. She said that we were wonderful to come on such a miserable day, it was drizzling by now,when we looked at her name badge it said Carolyn Elwes – what a lovely couple sharing their superb garden with us all and giving us such wonderful memories. We will certainly be back.

This first snowdrop has lost its label, I will have to consult the Galanthophiles bible -Snowdrops  by Matt Bishop – that will be a long job ! I think the inner petals are a lovely shade of green.

Galanthus nivalis “Angelique” is a tall one with just 2 spots on the inner petals. I like this one , looks so pristine.

Double snowdrops seem to increase faster than singles – this one is Galanthus “Desdemona”, very full inner petals and so neatly arranged.

Galanthus “Jaquenetta” is another tall one – one of the Greatorex doubles.

This increasing clump is of Galanthus “Robin Hood” with very upright leaves and flowers. The markings on the inner segment are very distinctive and this is one of the first special bulbs that I bought. I only ever buy one of each variety and then wait for them to increase, this is a good one.

Galanthus rizehensis is one of the species snowdrops which was originally found in north east Turkey and was introduced to garden cultivation. It will increase quickly if happy.

Galanthus “Merlin” is the best known cultivar to have all green inner segments. This is one of my favourites, but then, how can you have favourites, they are all gorgeous!

Galanthus elwesii “Cedric’s Prolific” was given to Beth Chatto by her friend Cedric Morris and she named it after him when she realised that it was something special. It certainly is prolific, the clumps are increasing very quickly.

Galanthus nivalis “Viridapice” has a strong green marking on the apex of the outer segment – on the inner segment is a large single mark.

Galanthus “John Gray”  is a very large form with beautiful inner markings. This is another of my first special bulbs, it has a lot to answer for !!

Galanthus “Wendy’s Gold” is absolutely beautiful with yellow markings where they are normally green. We bought one bulb 2 years ago, last year we had one flower, but this year we have 5 – one is hiding at the back of the photo – hope it continues to increase at this rate!  At the moment it is my absolute definite favourite !!

The weather forecasters tell us that this mild weather is only going to continue for another couple of days, then it’s back to the freezer once more. There are lots of other flowers which have enjoyed the mild weather,  the hellebores have started flowering, all of which make the small woodland a lovely place to visit to see what has flowered overnight.

Did you know that snowdrops have a beautiful delicate perfume – I didn’t until I brought these inside. Should have waited to photograph them though, a couple of hours later they had opened right up and you could see all the different markings on the inner petals.

Also in the little vase with the snowdrops are leaves of Arum italicum Marmorartum, they are just the right size at this time of year. Later,  the leaves get quite a bit larger, about the same time as the flower spike appears in the summer.

The black spikes with them are the leaves of  Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens. I have spread this around the garden, starting with just one plant, for contrast with other foliage. The best clump that I have of it is in the gravel at the back where it has spread nicely – it seems to be happiest here on heavy clay , in part shade. This clump now measures about 4 ft by 2 ft and is still expanding, I think it looks like a sheepskin rug !

Now for those lovely snowdrops. This one is Galanthus ” John Gray ” and is quite a large one.

This is Galanthus ” Ophelia “, which is a lovely double.

Galanthus “Atkinsii ” is quite an early one to flower and is tall.

Galanthus “Magnet” multiplies up quite quickly, good for selling on charity open days. The flower dangles on a longer than usual pedicel and therefore looks as though it is dancing in the breeze.

Galanthus elwesii “Mrs. McNamara ” is another tall early one, see how much larger it is than the little wild ones beside it.

More special snowdrops will open over the next few weeks – we need a bit more sun so that the flowers open wider and we can see how different they all are from each other – gardeners are never satisfied!!

Maybe a few more days of mild weather will bring them on.

The quince by the back door started flowering in November, but obviously all those flowers were burnt by the severe frost that we had, along with the snow. It is covered with hundreds of buds, so, hopefully will soon be flowering once more.

The winter jasmine by the front door is another that started flowering in November but was cut short by the weather. There are still plenty of buds to come though, so it is not all doom and gloom.

Viburnum bodnantense New Dawn is in the same situation as the others, plenty of flowers in November, then stopped by the weather. Once again there are plenty of flowers to come in the next few months.

Iris unguicularis started flowering, just one flower, before it was blasted by the frost and snow – hopefully there will be more flowers later.

One of the casualties of the weather is our Hypericum prolificum which had a beautiful rounded shape.  Obviously the snow was too heavy for it and quite a few branches have broken off. It is now looking rather a mess and will need cutting back to make a decent shape once more – I hope it will sprout again.

The Phormium which only just survived last winter, by sprouting from the base, got covered with 2 large net curtains and had a large piece of cardboard propped against it to try and keep the frost at bay. I will just have to wait and see if I have been successful. The fuchsias look just like they did last January – everything above ground seems to be dead so I am assuming that they will sprout from the base again just as they did last spring.

A shrub that is almost flowering is the Witch Hazel – the buds are just starting to open and we can see a tiny bit of yellow, so it won’t be long now. Once this gets going I will feel that maybe spring is just around the corner, but have to remind myself that usually January and February are the worst months for weather!!

My pink Hellebore which was flowering before Christmas has recovered from being buried under all our snow and is flowering once more……..

and has plenty of buds to follow.

Other hellebores wait for about another month usually, but there are plenty of buds promising lots of flowers later.

I spotted one lonely Cyclamen coum in the woodland on New Year’s Day. Soon there should be a lot more to join it, they look really lovely planted among the snowdrops.

Primulas are keen to be flowering again

but this one was bought as a cowslip at a church fair !!!

No wonder we had so many fieldfares and redwings in the garden. All these apples were still on the tree when the snow came, probably the weight of the snow made them fall off, but the birds have certainly enjoyed eating them. We have plenty too, stored in the freezer, so they didn’t get them all !!

For those who have been reading previous posts on this blog – yes , we did manage to escape from our village and spend Christmas with our son and daughter- in- law in London. The worst part of the journey was driving up the hill out of the village, 1 mile of packed snow and ice, no gritting had been done, the rest of the journey was easy !

Happy New Year – I hope that 2011 is a good year for all our gardens.

In spite of this the early flowers have looked lovely, when we got back from Sierra Leone the small woodland looked wonderful with thousands of snowdrops- the Hellebores which normally flower at the same time didn’t like the freezing temperatures and flowered beautifully a month later. Lots of other Spring bulbs followed the Snowdrops, then the Primroses, Narcissus & Bluebells took over. It was certainly worth going for a little walk each day just to see what had popped up overnight.

My passion, apart from Snowdrops & Hellebores, is Meconopsis and I am nursing about 200 seedlings, having just planted them out in their final places.50 were grown from seed which I bought in Canada at the Metis Garden (fantastic garden) and the other 150 from the seed of a plant I bought of Meconopsis “Lingholm”. While everyone else here will be hoping for a hot dry summer, I’m afraid I will be hoping for it to be cool & drizzly so that they will feel as if they are still at home in Tibet! Now each day I am searching for flower buds on my plants — do I let them flower in their first year? – I have read so much conflicting advice. At the moment I don’t think I would have the heart to cut the flower spikes off but would have to sacrifice one plant to collect seed to try and grow more plants.

At the moment we are frantically trying to get our garden ready for our opening for the National Garden Scheme next month (June 12/13) — non stop weeding. We thought we were on top of the weeds but after the last lot of rain the weeds are popping up everywhere again – it never stops!