‘Trumps’: has it all—vigorous, unique, beautiful; selected at the nursery of the wonderful John Morley, more here.
Our current snowdrop catalogue, featuring several of the snowdrops in this post, is on line here, and we are taking orders.
I have considered writing this post many times, but always felt that picking my favorite snowdrop is like choosing your favorite child. I always tell my three sons that I don’t have a favorite—I love them all equally but for different reasons. However among my snowdrops, I do have favorites, and I know the reasons, which I will share with you along with photos of some of my most-liked Galanthus.
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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‘Diggory’: totally unique flower; beautiful pleated leaves with a stripe; multiplies well.
I have a modest collection of snowdrops by English standards and even compared to many of the larger American collections. This is intentional—although I have an extensive wish list in my head, I want to build my collection slowly and knowledgeably. This allows time to care for the existing collection, including dividing, fertilizing, mulching, relocating, disease prevention, record keeping, and labeling, etc. My current project is to have each snowdrop in two locations in my garden: an heir and a spare so-to-speak.
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‘Viridapice’: tall and elegant with beautiful green markings; vigorous and easy.
When Snowdrops: A Monograph of Cultivated Galanthus by Bishop, Davis, and Grimshaw was reprinted in 2006, it covered around 500 named snowdrop cultivars. It was possible, if you could locate them, to have all these snowdrops in your garden. When the second edition of A Gardener’s Guide to Snowdrops by Freda Cox was published in 2019, it described 2,400 named cultivars. Freda Cox’s companion volume More Snowdrops, issued in May 2023, profiles over 700 additional cultivars. It is not possible, nor do I think it is advisable, to collect all the existing snowdrops. A collector must be discriminating. To help you with your choices, I have come up with six reasons why I prize a snowdrop over many other contenders.
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‘Godfrey Owen’: absolutely unique and beautiful from above and below; vigorous and early-blooming; selected by famous galanthophile Margaret Owen and named for her husband.
First, the flower must be beautiful and/or interesting. Among other characteristics I consider is the flower shape and size. I am partial to large, rounded flowers with spoon shaped outer segments. Although I generally prefer single flowers, in peonies for example, I also like double snowdrops—although many galanthophiles look down on them—because they bloom longer and, for me, are more often purely beautiful. The texture of the outer segments varies, and I am drawn to thick texture, which means the flower lasts longer, and I favor a pleated look. The color and placement of the marks is very important. I am partial to yellow snowdrops, dark emerald green marks, two-tone inner marks, and marks on the outer segments, especially virescent (green-shaded) outers.
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‘Madelaine’: the best and most vigorous yellow in my garden—there are many yellows but a lot do not multiply well; selected by the famous Joe Sharman at Monksilver Nursery.
Second, every snowdrop on my favorites list must be easy to grow and must multiply vigorously in my garden wherever I decide to place it. I do not treasure a snowdrop that doesn’t grow well for me no matter how much it thrives in other people’s gardens. And there will be no coddling of a picky snowdrop no matter how beautiful or rare. I will, however, move a snowdrop to a new location if it is doing OK but not thriving, if I have time….
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‘Fly Fishing’: the name chosen by my sadly missed friend Alan Street is perfect; would recognize it anywhere; very vigorous.
Third, I must be able to recognize a favorite snowdrop without looking at the label, not only in my garden but in larger collections. This is a tall order in a field of over 3,100 named cultivars, many of which have very little to set them apart. However, through a combination of flower shape and markings, leaves, habit, and bloom time, all my favorites stand out.
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‘Xmas’: large, elegant, upright flowers with gracefully curved spathes and wide blue leaves; early bloomer; selected at the US Botanic Garden and named by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.
Fourth, the habit and individual parts of a snowdrop can add greatly to its desirability. I am partial to tall and upright snowdrops with large flowers held well above the leaves. My favorite leaves are wide and generally blue, which is characteristic of Galanthus elwesii, but I also love the elegantly pleated foliage of Galanthus plicatus, especially if there is a pronounced white stripe. Ovaries (the little cap above the flower) with pleasing and compatible shapes, spathes (the bud covering) that arch elegantly over the flower, and pedicels (the flower stem) that hold the flower just so can add to a snowdrop’s allure.
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‘Potter’s Prelude’: large and elegant flowers; best November-blooming snowdrop in my garden; named by my dear friend Charles Cresson.
Fifth, I lean toward snowdrops that bloom early, especially in November and December. As I describe more fully in my post December Blooming Snowdrops, click here to read, this is the time of year when I can most appreciate flowers of all kinds and not many snowdrops bloom then so the ones that do stand out. I would consider this a purely personal consideration, but it is a preference shared by the majority of my customers so I have to think it is widespread.
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‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’: beautiful; no other double has the two elegant dots on the inner segments; multiplies rapidly; grown by Lady Beatrix Stanley (1877-1944) at Sibbertoft Manor.
Finally, I love snowdrops with history behind them: who selected them, where, why? Unlike most other plants, we can often answer these questions about snowdrops and our relation to the plant is the richer for this added dimension. That is why I always provide snowdrop history in my catalogue and in blog post profiles of new snowdrops.
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The snowdrops pictured above were chosen from the favorites in my collection because they illustrate the points I am making and meet most if not all of my criteria. However, I grow many more snowdrops that qualify as favorites and could have been included here. And I grow others that don’t make the grade, usually due to their slow growth, but which I still treasure.
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Carolyn
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An unassuming title for a wonderful book. The snowdrop pictured on the cover is ‘Wol Staines’ from Glen Chantry in England, a nursery that I dream of visiting.
The book starts with some beautiful landscape photos of snowdrops, this one taken at Brechin Castle in Scotland.
‘Godfrey Owen’ comes into bloom early in the main season for snowdrops, generally the second half of January in my garden. It is one of my favorites and has received the coveted Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
‘Wasp’ is a snowdrop that you would recognize anywhere without a label due to its long, narrow, wing-like outer segments and the striped inner segements resembling a thorax.
‘Standing Tall’ is an American snowdrop selected by bulb expert Charles Cresson and introduced exclusively by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens in 2013. Its upright habit, height, and mid-December bloom time make it an outstanding snowdrop.
‘Three Ships’ is another favorite available in our 2022 catalogue. Its distinctive, large, round and seersuckered outer segments along with its Christmas bloom time earned it a rare Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 