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Snowdrops at Thenford Gardens

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2025 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

 

Thenford Gardens and Arboretum

To access our mail order snowdrop catalogue, click here.  We are currently taking orders, and there are still a lot of great varieties left.

.The winter landscape at Thenford is classically beautiful.

In February of 2023, we had the great good fortune to be invited by Deputy Head Gardener Emma Thick for a private tour of the snowdrops at Thenford Gardens and Arboretum located in Thenford, Near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.  Thenford is a 70 acre arboretum created by Michael and Anne Hesseltine, beginning in 1976 when they purchased the property.  Their initial focus was a 40 acre woodland that required extensive renovations to the woods themselves and various structures and water features, including a walled garden, a rill, water gardens, and a sculpture garden.  Thenford now has over 3,000 different trees and shrubs.

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.

.Another beautiful vista at Thenford.

In the 1990s Henry and Carolyn Elwes, whose gardens at Colesbourne Park are a premier snowdrop destination, encouraged the Hesseltines to focus on adding snowdrops to Thenford’s collection.  In 2014, snowdrop expert Emma Thick was hired to oversee the snowdrops, and in 2016, the garden began opening for snowdrop walks.  Today there are over 1,000 snowdrop cultivars and species in the collection, which was awarded National Collection status by Plant Heritage in June 2023.  The current focus is dividing and spreading the snowdrops more widely through out the grounds.

.The walled garden.

You can visit Thenford by purchasing tickets in advance here.  The snowdrop open days for 2026 are January 28 and February 14, 20, and 24.  Tickets are £14.00.

.My husband Michael with Emma Thick in the walled garden.

As you can see from the photos above, the day we visited Thenford was bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky.  These are not ideal conditions for taking photos of snowdrops, which get washed out in bright sunlight and look awful when partially in full shade and partially in full sun.  However, I did get a few decent shots. 

First, here are some of the amazing sweeps of snowdrops that blanket the gardens:

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‘Godfrey Owen’

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‘Primrose Warburg’

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‘Lapwing’

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‘Mrs. Thompson’

Here are some of the individual snowdrops that I admired:

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‘Bill Bishop’

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‘Moses Basket’ dutifully making its basket

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‘Fatty Puff’

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‘Walrus’

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‘Walter’s Double’

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A cross between ‘Fatty Puff’ and G. gracilis ‘Yamandar’, which I found quite intriguing.

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Thanks, Emma, for a wonderful visit!

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Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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New Snowdrops for 2026: Part Three

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2025 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

These plants will be in the 2026 catalogue coming out this Saturday, December 6: clockwise from upper left, tall & elegant ‘Xmas’ blooming with fall camellias, very unusual 6-petaled ‘Godfrey Owen’, pale yellow aconite ‘Schwefelglanz’, very unique ‘Diggory’, double-flowered & vigorous ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’, rare semi-double leucojum ‘Gertrude Wister’, and yellow-flowered ‘Wendy’s Gold’

To access our current snowdrop catalogue when its available, click here.

One of the many benefits of buying snowdrops as plants rather than as bulbs is that WE grow the bulbs on to plants and assume the risks of the bulb being the wrong cultivar, suffering from disease, and/or under-performing by producing plants too small to sell.   When you buy a dried or dormant bulb, you will not know if any of these issues will be a problem.  If you buy a growing plant from us,  you will know that it is the right cultivar, disease-free, and blooming-size.  If any of these problem conditions exist, we will not sell the plant to you.

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When we purchased dormant bulbs, we received ‘Sprite’ (lovely in its own right) when we were expecting ‘Spindlestone Surprise’.

The downside for us is that we have to cancel a few snowdrops that we intended to offer when we see them emerging in late fall or cancel orders for plants in February around shipping time.  Although this is inconvenient and growing plants instead of selling the bulbs is much more time-consuming for us, we think it is worth it in order to make the highest quality snowdrops available to our customers.  We would rather have a snowdrop underperform in our garden than yours!

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These ‘Walker Canada’ bulbs purchased in the fall proved to be diseased when we dug them the following February to sell.  Note that the leaves of these plants look perfectly normal so that, if they were planted as dormant bulbs directly in your garden, you would not know they were diseased.  Meanwhile they would be spreading disease through out your snowdrop collection.  That is why we recommend that you never plant dried or dormant snowdrop bulbs directly in your garden.

Three cultivars profiled in our new offering posts, click here and here to read, are now obviously too small to sell in the 2026 catalogue.  They are ‘Early Bird’, ‘Poculi Perfect, and ‘Selina Cords’, all snowdrops from species with smaller bulbs that may have been adversely affected by the drought.  This post is part three of a three-part series on our new snowdrop offerings and will profile ‘B and B Duncan’, ‘Clare Blakeway-Phillips’, and ‘Frank Lebsa’, all being offered by us for the first time.

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‘Early Bird’ is very healthy but too small to sell this year.

The 2026 Snowdrop Catalogue will be posted on our website on December 6, 2025, at 11 am EST, and details will be sent to our snowdrop customer email list at that time.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at three more special, new snowdrops that will be available for order on December 6.  Enjoy!

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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The flowers of ‘B and B Duncan’ have an elegant shape.

‘B and B Duncan’ is a late-blooming cultivar of the giant snowdrop, G. elwesii. It has large, rounded outer segments held out like spoons on the long claws, which join the outers to the ovary. There are faint basal marks on the inners, looking like eyes.  It is late blooming and grows prolifically.  It is especially prized for its beautiful scent.

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‘B and B Duncan’ has a very upright habit.

‘B and B Duncan’ was originally discovered by well known Irish garden designer and lecturer Helen Dillon.  She passed it to Altamont Gardens in County Carlow, Ireland, where it was evaluated for over 25 years.  Robert Miller, Altamont’s owner,  named it for Brian Duncan, an RHS and American Daffodil Society award-winning daffodil breeder, and his wife Betty.  It was introduced at the 2024 Annual Irish Snowdrop Gala.

. ‘Clare Blakeway-Phillips’ has an almost solid green inner mark.

‘Clare Blakeway-Phillips’ is a floriferous G. plicatus hybrid.  It has large, rounded outer segments and an almost fully green inner mark.  The shiny, bright lime-green ovary (the cap above the bloom) makes the flower very distinct.  Its widely splayed, very glaucous leaves perfectly display this vigorous snowdrop.

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‘Clare Blakeway-Phillips’ was collected from the Herfordshire garden of Angela Marchant in the early 1970s by snowdrop enthusiast Reverend Richard Blakeway-Phillips.  He named it after his daughter, and it received an RHS Award of Merit in 1976.  Our stock, as verified by beloved snowdrop expert Alan Street, originated from the garden of Veronica Cross not far from her well known “island”

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‘Frank Lebsa’ is just beautiful.

‘Frank Lebsa’ is a cultivar of G. elwesii var. monostictus.  It could be the earliest blooming member of the Hiemalis Group in my garden, starting to bloom in October right after G. reginae-olgae.  It has gorgeous markings with a dark green inner mark covering more than half the segment and a bold, lighter green patch on the outer segments.  It really stands out in the fall when most snowdrops are just white, beautiful as they may be!

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‘Frank Lebsa’ is very noticeable in the fall garden.

‘Frank Lebsa’ was discovered in 1999 by Elisabeth Lebsa in a pot of giant snowdrops at the Dresden flower market.  It was named by her son, snowdrop expert Jörg Lebsa, for his brother.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 40 of Some Snowdrops.

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  If you are reading this post in the WordPress email (white background), just reply to the email to comment.  If you are reading the post on my blog (black background, recommended for better viewing), scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Reply” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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New Snowdrops (& a Leucojum) for 2026: Part Two

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2025 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

‘Treasure Island’ is the most beautiful yellow snowdrop I have ever seen.

To access our current snowdrop catalogue, click here.

Seeing the green tips of emerging snowdrops in our garden every fall never gets old.  The anticipation and promise that those tips represent propel me happily through fall garden chores.  Right now, several varieties are finished while ‘Barnes’ and ‘Peter Gatehouse’ are in full glorious bloom.

This is part two of a two-part post on the new snowdrops plus a new leucojum that will be offered in our 2026 Snowdrop Catalogue.  To read part one, click here.  The catalogue will be posted on our website in the first half of December, and details will be sent to our snowdrop customer list soon.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at four more special, new snowdrops and a leucojum that will be available for order in December.  Enjoy!

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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A close up of ‘Treasure Island’s’ gorgeous yellow flower.  Photo taken at Avon Bulbs on 2/2/23

‘Treasure Island’ is probably the largest flowered yellow snowdrop available in the trade.  It is impossible to overstate how impressive and beautiful this snowdrop is.  Descriptions often say that it has the stature and substance of ‘Mighty Atom’, which is true, although I cannot determine if it is actually a descendant of that still sought after cultivar.  When I saw it en mass at Avon Bulbs in England in 2017, I couldn’t believe how big the flowers were, what a stunning yellow it was, or the elegance of the whole plant.

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My first view of ‘Treasure Island’ in 2017—look at the size of those flowers compared to the cultivar in the pot right behind it!  Photo taken at Avon Bulbs on 2/9/17

Famous galanthophile Veronica Cross in Herefordshire had an area of her garden called Treasure Island where she told everyone she “kept her treasures”.  Many fine snowdrops originated there so I can only surmise that this one was the best as it received the name ‘Treasure Island”.  It was introduced in 2015. For me it is very vigorous, producing five flowers the year after I planted it.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 104 of Some More Snowdrops.

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‘Lord Lieutenant’ proudly displays its big flowers and bold markings.

‘Lord Lieutenant’ has the big, rounded flowers and the beautiful, pleated leaves characteristic of G. plicatus.  The blooms are held at a sharp angle by the short pedicel (flower stem), looking like they are standing at attention.  The bold, dark green, X mark on the inner segments is quite attractive.

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You can see the lieutenant-like stance even more clearly when the flowers are closed, here at Colesbourne Park in England on 2/10/17. 

‘Lord Lieutenant’ was selected by our dear friend Lady Carolyn Elwes at Colesbourne Park, the magnificent snowdrop destination in England where this photo was taken.  She named it in 1999 for her husband Sir Henry Elwes’s long-standing position as the Queen’s representative in Gloucestershire or Lord Lieutenant.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 66 of Some Snowdrops.

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‘Elfenkind’s’ little face is clearly visible.

‘Elfenkind’ means elfin child and refers to the adorable elf-like face peeking out from the inner segments.  When the plant is settled the outer segments have green tips.  It is a prolific multiplier and easy to grow, blooming around the New Year.  Mine bloomed on December 19 in 2024.   It was discovered in a batch of bulk Galanthus elwesii  in 2018.

.‘Prestwood White’ displays its beautiful poculiform shape.  Photo 3/1/2016 at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.

‘Prestwood White’ is a tiny and rare cultivar of Galanthus nivalis.  It is a poculiform snowdrop meaning all the segments are outers and approximately the same length.  It is pure white, although occasionally it has a green dot on the apex of the inners.  It is a carefree and vigorous grower.

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‘Prestwood White’, photo at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens 2/23/22

‘Prestwood White’ was found by the famous John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries in Kingswinford, England, about four miles along the canal from the nursery in a wild population of common snowdrops.  It was originally called “John’s Poculiformis” but later named ‘Prestwood White’.  John gave some to Marietta O’Byrne of Northwest Garden Nursery in Eugene, Oregon, and her husband, Ernie, passed one to me in 2013.

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Carpathian snowflakes have yellow spots instead of the typical green.

Leucojum vernum var. carpathicum, the Carpathian snowflake, is one of two established varieties of Leucojum vernum, the spring snowflake.   The other, var. vernum with green spots, is more commonly available but still rare.  Carpathian snowflakes have beautiful yellow marks on their tepals (petals).  They grow naturally in the Carpathian Mountains, which spread from Austria in an arc to Romania. 

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A clump of Carpathian snowflakes is truly magical!

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  If you are reading this post in the WordPress email (white background), just reply to the email to comment.  If you are reading the post on my blog (black background, recommended for better viewing), scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Reply” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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New Snowdrops for 2026: Part One

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2025 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

‘Early Bird’ is easily recognized in the garden as a Galanthus woronowii cultivar but it blooms much earlier than the typical end of February or March.  Photo 1/25/25

To see last year’s snowdrop catalogue, click here.

I have been selling snowdrops since I started my nursery in 1991.  However, in 2013, I started importing from England cultivars that were hard-to-find in the US and growing them on for my customers.  My imports for catalogue sales always focused on cultivars that were well known and readily available in Europe, but every year I purchased single bulbs of a small number of rare and expensive cultivars to add to my own collection.  I am excited that once again I will be selling limited quantities of those choice snowdrops.

As usual, the 2026 Snowdrop Catalogue will be posted on our website in the first half of December 2025.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at some of the special, new snowdrops that will be available in the catalogue.  Enjoy!  

Nursery News:  Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a specialty nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA.  The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US.  For catalogues and announcements, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate 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.

‘Early Bird’, pictured at the top, is an inverse poculiform (all the segments are inners) cultivar of the snowdrop species Galanthus woronowii, sometimes called the green snowdrop for its shiny green leaves or Woronow’s snowdrop for its namesake, Georg Jurii Nikolaewitch Woronow (1874-1931).  Unlike the species though, it has lovely green markings on the outer segments, not just the inners, and the pagoda shape we treasure in ‘Trumps’ and other inverse poculiform snowdrops.  Its very wide leaves are bright, shiny, and the beautiful shade of green characteristic of the species.  They sparkle in the winter sun and are my favorite snowdrop foliage.

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When the flowers are closed, you especially notice ‘Early Bird’s’ lovely wide and shiny green leaves.  Photo 1/30/22

Even more unique is ‘Early Bird’s’ bloom time.  G. woronowii is usually the last snowdrop to bloom in my garden at the end of February or beginning of March, while ‘Early Bird’ blooms much earlier as you can see from the dates of these photos.  It may be the earliest bloomer of its species.

Millions of G. woronowii bulbs are legally harvested in Georgia every year and sold as dried bulbs through European bulb houses mainly located in the Netherlands.  A friend selected and named ‘Early Bird’ from a batch purchased in the early 2010s.  For more information on the species Galanthus woronowii, you can read my post The Sochi Snowdrop by clicking here. 

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‘Peter Gatehouse’ is a stately fall-blooming snowdrop with a distinctive inner mark.

‘Peter Gatehouse’ is a member of the Hiemalis Group of the giant snowdrop species, Galanthus elwesii.  It is easy to recognize for its large flowers featuring an olive green X lightening towards the base.  It blooms in mid-October here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  It is a prolific bloomer with an upright habit and a spathe (the bud sheath) that points upwards.

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A close up of the lovely two-toned inner mark and the long elegant outer segments. 

This graceful snowdrop was given to Elizabeth Strangman at Washfield Nursery in England in 1994 by Peter Gatehouse and named after him.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 87 of her book Some More Snowdrops.

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There may be no more perfectly uniform poculiform snowdrop than ‘Poculi Perfect’.  Photo March 2020

‘Poculi Perfect’ is a snowdrop that elicits superlatives on sight.  It has a large, pure white, perfectly formed poculiform flower, which means all the segments are outers.  Generally there is still some size and color variation in poculiforms, but here the inner and outer segments are the exact same size and shape and show no green at all.  When he introduced it, Joe Sharman at Monksilver Nursery called it “one of the best Czech poculiforms with exceptionally large flowers.”

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‘Poculi Perfect’ displays its large flowers very late in the season.  Photo March 2025

‘Poculi Perfect’ is a taller cultivar of Galanthus nivalis, the common snowdrop, displaying its large blooms on upright, strong scapes set off by widely splayed, broad, glaucous leaves.  It was found in 2009 in the Czech Republic by Pavel Sekerka and named in 2011 by Jānis Rukšāns, the Latvian bulb specialist.  Anne Repnow profiles ‘Poculi Perfect’ on page 76 of Some Snowdrops.

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Like all snowdrops in the Scharlockii Group, ‘Selina Cords’ is a beautiful bright green.  Photo taken at Glenn Chantry 2/12/23

‘Selina Cords’ is similar to other members of the Scharlockii Group of Galanthus nivalis, the common snowdrop, but has lovely and extensive green markings on the outer segments covering the apex and running all the way to the base—a very pleasing look.  The slender flowers are incurved and attached to a long pedicel (stem attaching flower to scape) arising from the split spathe (bud sheath) resembling rabbit’s ears that is characteristic of this group. 

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‘Selina Cords’ displays its prominent pedicel and leaf-like split spathe.

‘Selina Cords’ is a robust snowdrop, and one of the best ‘Scharlockii’ types originating in Belgium.  It was discovered in 2006 by famous German galanthophile Rudi Bauer and named for his granddaughter.

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Look for another post profiling more new snowdrops (& a Leucojum) soon.

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  Just scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Comment” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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A Special Tour of Anglesey Abbey

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2024 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

 

The house at Anglesey Abbey was originally built in 1600 on the ruins of a priory dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536.  Photo David Boughey

To access our current snowdrop catalogue, click here.  There are still a lot of great snowdrops left.

In February of 2023, Michael and I visited the magnificent winter gardens at Anglesey Abbey in Lode, England, about five miles outside of Cambridge.  We came at the invitation of the wonderful David Boughey, National Trust Service Assistant, who arranged a private tour of Anglesey’s snowdrop collection for us.  David is also a professional photographer and supplied many of the photographs for this post.  Thank you, David!

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Nursery News:  Carolyn’s Shade Gardens at Whitehall Farm is a retail nursery in Norristown, PA, U.S., zone 6b/7a. If you are interested in shopping here, send us an email with your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate if you are interested in shopping at the nursery and/or snowdrops (mail order only). Current catalogues, hours/contact information , and directions are under Pages on the right sidebar. The only plants we ship are snowdrops to US customers. 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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The Anglesey Abbey grounds include Lode Mill, a completely functional corn mill, originally purchased and restored by Lord Fairhaven in 1934 but probably in existence prior to 1086.  Photo David Boughey

Our tour was conducted by very knowledgeable Senior Gardener David Jordan, who guided us through the winter gardens and the Specialist Collection of Snowdrops.  Anglesey Abbey has over 500 varieties of snowdrops so it is a great place for galanthophiles.  But before I get to the snowdrops, I want to show you the stunning winter gardens.  The following photos were taken by David Boughey.

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Now for the snowdrops……

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Anglesey Abbey has had to limit access to the snowdrop collection after a series of snowdrop thefts so the Specialist Collection is only accessible with advance booking of a guided tour.  The tours take place in January and February and sell out quickly.  The 2025 tour schedule was not available at the time of this post, but click here to check for updates.

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We passed this sculptural birch grove on the way to the snowdrops.

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There were also many naturalized snowdrops in the woods and gardens outside the special collection.

The snowdrop collection featured so many amazing and notable cultivars that it would be impossible to do it justice—you just have to visit.  In the meantime, I will show nine snowdrops that were discovered and selected at Anglesey Abbey:

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‘Ailwyn’, a RHS Award of Garden Merit-winning snowdrop discovered by the famous Richard Nutt in 1994 and named for Lord Fairhaven, the owner of Anglesey Abbey who donated it to the National Trust in 1966.

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‘Anglesey Orange Tip’ was discovered at Anglesey Abbey by our guide Senior Gardener David Jordan.  Its buds are a lovely apricot color, which fades to a glow on the tips when the flowers open.

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‘Anglesey Orange Tip’ in bud at Colesbourne Park.

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‘Anglesey Abbey’, though variable, is, at its best, a pure white poculiform snowdrop with glossy green leaves found by famous horticulturist Graham Thomas in the abbey gardens.

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The beautiful double ‘Lady Fairhaven’ appeared at the abbey in 1998 and is considered very similar to ‘Ailwyn’.

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‘Anglesey Candlelight’ was discovered by Senior Gardener David Jordan around 2014 and given its name due to the orange glow on the inner segments.

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‘Huttlestone’ was discovered in the abbey gardens in 1992 by Joe Sharman, the owner of Monksilver Nursery.  It is named for the first Lord Fairhaven.  Look at those leaves!

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‘Anglesey Cloudgazer’ was found in the abbey gardens by now retired Head Gardener Richard Todd and named by Michael and Ann Broadhurst at Rainbow Farm Snowdrops for a stargazing structure at the abbey designed by Todd.

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The beautiful and vigorous ‘Richard Ayres’ was found at Anglesey Abbey in 1987 by famous galanthophile Richard Nutt and named for a former Head Gardener.

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As recounted by then Head Gardener Richard Ayres, ‘Melanie Broughton’ was discovered at Anglesey Abbey during the 1998 Galanthus Gala and later named for Lord Fairhaven’s youngest daughter.  It is still available in our 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue.

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  If you are reading this post in the WordPress email (white background), just reply to the email to comment.  If you are reading the post on my blog (black background, recommended for better viewing), scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Reply” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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Cambridge Botanic Garden in Winter

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 7, 2024 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

 

The winter landscape at Cambridge Botanic Garden features stunning displays of snowdrops in February.

To access our current snowdrop catalogue, click here.

We posted our 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue on Sunday to a very enthusiastic response from our wonderful snowdrop customers all over the country.  Our limited supply of the rare and special snowdrops included in our catalogue always sell out in the first few hours.  However, in this post, I want to sing the praises of the more ‘ordinary’ (if you can say that about a Galanthus) snowdrops that should be the backbone of any winter garden while showing you the beautiful winter landscape at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

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The bright white of the award-winning snowdrop ‘Magnet’ is a welcome addition to all parts of a winter garden.

What snowdrops am I talking about?  The easiest way to find them in our catalogue is by looking at the prices.  Snowdrops that multiply easily and rapidly in almost any conditions are less expensive because we have more of them available.  Snowdrops like ‘S. Arnott’, the so-called desert island snowdrop, which galanthophiles would choose if they could only have one.  Or ‘Straffan’, brought back to England by a soldier from the Crimean War.  Or ‘Mrs. Macnamara’, a very early bloomer selected by Dylan Thomas’s mother-in-law.  Or ‘Trumps’, the most vigorous and beautiful pagoda-shaped (inverse poculiform) snowdrop.

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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Number one rated ‘S. Arnott’ with hellebores and a winter-blooming iris.

Another way to find them is to look for the designation RHS AGM at the end of the plant descriptions in our catalogue.  This means the snowdrop has received a prestigious Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in England.  The Society gives AGMs to help “gardeners choose plants that have been tried and tested by experts [and] …  are likely to perform and are excellent for ordinary use.”  Snowdrop AGMs are awarded after extensive trials and judging by snowdrop experts.

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‘Magnet’ was used throughout Cambridge Botanic Garden, here massed by the pond.

Of the over 2,500 named snowdrops, only 28 have been awarded the RHS AGM.  In addition to the four briefly described above (‘S. Arnott’, ‘Straffan’, Mrs. Macnamara’, and ‘Trumps’), we also sell ‘Magnet’ (in the photo above), ‘Augustus’ with beautiful quilted flowers and striped leaves, ‘Barnes’ a vigorous fall-bloomer, very large-flowered ‘Bertram Anderson’, and the common snowdrop Galanthus nivalis, which has multiplied throughout our garden.  To see photos and detailed descriptions of all of them, click here.

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Snowdrops offer a bright contrast to plants with purple, red, and gold winter colors.

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The yellow flowers of winter aconite, Eranthis hyemalis, weave in among silver grasses, bergenia, and heather.  We also sell it in our catalogue.

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Yellow winter aconite brings out the gold in brightly-stemmed dogwood.

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A more subtle but elegant combination, blue-stem willow, Salix irrorata, with snowdrops.

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And then there is this eye-popping pairing of snowdrops with bergenia, heather, and bright red-stemmed dogwood backed by golden conifers.

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Snowdrops look lovely here and in my garden in February with Narcissus ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation‘—yes, it does bloom that early!

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The ways to use snowdrops in masses in your winter landscape are not limited by space considerations as they go dormant after they bloom and can be planted around other plants or in the backs of your beds.

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I could write a whole post on how much we loved visiting Cambridge.  You can walk everywhere, and it has excellent museums, restaurants, scenery, walking tours, and gardens.  The colleges within the university are gorgeous and the evensong music of their choirs is heavenly.   

We stayed at the Duke House right in downtown Cambridge, whose very friendly and welcoming owner provided lovely accommodations, excellent breakfasts, and parking on site so we could abandon our car while we were there.  In addition to the Cambridge Botanic Garden, when we were in the Cambridge area, we also visited Benington Lordship Gardens, Anglesey Abbey, and Wandlebury Ring, all of which were amazing.

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Carolyn

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New Snowdrops (& an Eranthis) for 2025: Part Two

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 24, 2024 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens


‘Richard Bish’ is a very rare and stunning double winter aconite or Eranthis (photo taken 2/14/24 at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens).

Seeing the emerging green tips appearing in almost every snowdrop location in our garden never gets old.  The anticipation and promise that those tips represent propel me happily through fall garden chores.  In addition, ‘Standing Tall’ celebrated the emerging season by coming into bloom three weeks early on November 17.

This is part two of a two-part post on the new snowdrops plus a leucojum and an eranthis that will be offered in our 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue.  To read part one, click here.  The catalogue will be posted on our website on December 1, 2024, and details will be sent to our snowdrop customer list shortly.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at four more special, new snowdrops and an eranthis/winter aconite that will be available for order in December.  Enjoy!

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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When ‘Richard Bish’s’ flowers are closed you can clearly see the green stripes on the outer petals.

Eranthis hyemalis ‘Richard Bish’ is a very rare, winter aconite cultivar.  It has beautiful double-flowers with elegant rounded petals (technically sepals) as you can see from the photo at the beginning of this post.  The inner petals are a warm bright yellow while the outer row has intriguing green stripes (see photo directly above).  I received seeds from bulb expert Charles Cresson in 2018 and finally have a few to sell.  ‘Richard Bish’ was found by Karl Kristensen in the English garden of Richard Bish and named in his honor.

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‘Dodo Norton has one of the largest snowdrop flowers.

‘Dodo Norton’ has huge, thickly textured flowers on long pedicels (the stem attaching the flower to the scape) but short scapes—it looks like a very dwarf ‘Mighty Atom.  The cupped outer segments are puckered to produce a seersucker effect, and the inners are boldly marked.  It was found in the famous ditch in the former garden of well known horticulturist Margery Fish at East Lambrook Manor and named in 2000 for a previous owner of the property.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 31 of Some Snowdrops.

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‘Kildare’, a virescent or green-shaded snowdrop, is one of the most elegant flowers in my garden (photos taken 3/6/22 at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens).

‘Kildare’ is an unmistakable snowdrop with long, tapering and pointed outer segments marked with lovely pale green lines extending halfway to the base (top of the flower).  The inner segments are almost entirely bright green fading toward the base.  It is usually one of the last snowdrops to bloom in my garden.

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‘Kildare’ has gorgeous markings.

‘Kildare is a hybrid cross discovered by the famous snowdrop hunters Ruby and David Baker in 1995 when they got lost in County Kildare on a snowdrop tour of Ireland.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 63 of Some Snowdrops.

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‘Bitter Lemons’ joins an august group of rare inverse poculiform yellow snowdrops (photo from RB Snowdrops and used with the permission of Richard Bashford).

‘Bitter Lemons’ is one of the few yellow snowdrops, along with ‘Midas’ and ‘Golden Fleece’, that has yellow markings on both the inner and outer segments.  It is a so-called ‘color change’ snowdrop like ‘Blonde Inge’, opening a lemony lime and aging to lemony yellow.  It blooms one month before ‘Midas’.  International snowdrop expert Alan Street discovered ‘Bitter Lemons’ in the famous copse at Avon Bulbs and introduced it in 2019.  Anne Repnow profiles it on page 21 of Some Snowdrops. 

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‘White Swan displays its elegant double flowers against the bright blue winter sky at Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.

‘White Swan’ is a large and elegant double snowdrop originated prior to 1954 by English plantsman Heyrick Greatorex who crossed Galanthus plicatus, with the double common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’.  It is the rarest of the resulting doubles with the largest flowers on very tall stems.  It increases vigorously in my garden, especially with regular division.

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We were very impressed by the large stand of ‘White Swan’ at Thenford Arboretum in England where the wonderful Emma Thick gave us a private tour.  You can see its bold mark and neat and regular flower.

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Carolyn

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New Snowdrops (& a Leucojum) for 2025: Part One

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 20, 2024 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

‘Dryad Gold Sovereign’ features beautiful yellow markings and a huge flower.

To access our current snowdrop catalogue, click here.

I have been importing snowdrops from England and growing them on for my customers since 2013.  My imports for catalogue sales always focused on the more well known and readily available cultivars, but every year I purchased single bulbs of a small number of rare and expensive cultivars to add to my own collection.  I am excited that this year I will finally be selling limited quantities of those choice snowdrops.

As usual, the 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue will be posted on our website in the first half of December.  Meanwhile, this post will give everyone an advance look (sorry, no advance orders) at some of the special, new snowdrops that will be available in the catalogue.  Enjoy!

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 also 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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‘Dryad Gold Sovereign’, pictured at the top, resulted from an intentional cross of ‘Wendy’s Gold’ with G. nivalis “Sandersii Group” by expert hybridizer Anne Wright from Dryad Nursery in England.  Her aim was to produce vigorous snowdrops with bright yellow flowers.  After 12 years of rigorous assessment, Anne selected the yellow snowdrops in the Dryad Gold Group.

‘Dryad Gold Sovereign’ is recognized as the best in the group and, in Anne’s own words, it is “quite simply my favourite of all the snowdrops I grow.”  It is early-blooming, before most yellows, and produces large (twice the size of ‘Primrose Warburg’), well-proportioned, long-lasting, bright yellow flowers on sturdy, upright stems.  It performs exceptionally well in the garden.  You can read Anne’s own description of this elegant snowdrop by clicking here. You can also read Anne Repnow’s profile on page 41 of Some More Snowdrops.

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‘Herzilien’ holds its outer segments wide so you can easily see the little green hearts on the inners.

‘Herzilien’ means little sweetheart in German, referring to the marking on the inner segments and its tendency to bloom on Valentine’s Day.  The long claws joining the outer segments to the narrow, conical ovary hold the outer segments wide to display the perfectly shaped heart on the inner segments.  On page 55 of Some Snowdrops, Anne Repnow praises this snowdrop for its “astonishing vigor and floriferousness”.  It was selected around 2000 by Arthur Winkelmann after growing on seeds he received from a gardening friend in Russia.

.‘Joe Spotted’ is easily recognized in the garden.

‘Joe Spotted’ has beautiful markings and an excellent habit.   The outer segments feature a large olive green diamond, while the inner segments have a big, dark green apical mark and two pale green ‘eyes’ at the base—as I have said before, I am a sucker for a snowdrop with a face!  The gorgeously marked flowers are enhanced by the snowdrop’s tall, upright habit. 

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When the flowers are closed, you especially notice the very upright habit, here at Glen Chantry nursery in England.

‘Joe Spotted’ is praised as a strong grower and very fine plant.  Spotted in galanthophile David Bromley’s Shropshire garden by Joe Sharman, the owner of Monksilver Nursery in England.  You can read Anne Repnow’s profile on page 60 in Some Snowdrops.

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‘Titania’ features large, double flowers on upright, vigorous plants, pictured here at Colesbourne Park in England, which is the source of my stock.

‘Titania’ is a beautiful and elegant double snowdrop originated prior to 1954 by English plantsman Heyrick Greatorex as part of his famous series of large and vigorous doubles named after characters in Shakespeare’s plays—here the Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  ‘Titania’ is one of the rarer but more easily identifiable Greatorex doubles due to its neat and regular double flowers with a prominent horseshoe mark at the base of the inner segments.  As you can see from the photo, it multiplies well in the garden.

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‘Ingrid Bauer’s’ large flowers have a very unique inner mark.

‘Ingrid Bauer’ has large and elegantly shaped flowers with the long outer segments held wide to reveal a very unique X mark on the inner segments.  The mark is composed of a pale green upper part and a very dark green lower part, making this snowdrop instantly recognizable in the garden.  An easy and prolific snowdrop selected by the famous German galanthophile Rudi Bauer and named for his wife in 2007.

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‘Null Punkte’ is the whitest spring snowflake.

‘Null Punkte’ is a spring snowflake or Leucojum vernum.  Its name means zero points in German and refers to the lack of green or yellow on the tips of the petals (tepals), making it the whitest spring snowflake.  The flowers in my garden occasionally have a slight bit of green (see far left of left flower in photo), but they get whiter as they mature. 

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‘Null Punkte’ growing under a shrub in Charles Cresson’s Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, garden.

‘Null Punkte’ is a good grower but not fast—I received a plant in 2013 and just have a few to sell now.  It was discovered in a park in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and named by Ingo Kaczmarek as a reference to point-giving in the Eurovision Song Contest.  For more information about Leucojum with descriptions and photos of many cultivars, click here.

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Look for another post profiling more new snowdrops (& an Eranthis) soon.

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  If you are reading the post in the WordPress email (white background), just reply to the email to comment.  If you are reading the post on my blog (black background, better formatting), scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Reply” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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Some More Snowdrops by Anne Repnow

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2024 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

The beautiful virescent snowdrop pictured on the cover of Some More Snowdrops by Anne Repnow is ‘York Minister’ selected by Jorg Lebsa in Dresden, Germany.

To access our current snowdrop catalogue, click here.

This fall, I received my copy of Some More Snowdrops by Anne C. Repnow (Davidia Press 2024) and  immediately read it cover-to-cover.  As with her previous book Some Snowdrops: A Photographic Ramble (Davidia Press 2020), I was captivated by the excellent photographs and comprehensive descriptions.  I want to share this first-rate book with you in time for you to purchase it for use as a reference during the upcoming snowdrop season.

Another reason why I am excited about this book is that Anne will be joining the ranks of such snowdrop luminaries as Matt Bishop and Alan Street and giving the annual Bank-to-Bend Lecture at Winterthur in Delaware on March 8, 2025.  I hope many of you will plan to attend!  You will be able to buy her first book, which is currently out-of-print, at the lecture too. 

All the snowdrops featured in this post except ‘York Minster’ above will be available in our 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue coming out in December.

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 also 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.
.The book starts with some beautiful landscape photos of snowdrops, this one of a magnificent stand of award-winning ‘Trumps’ taken at the Garden House in Devon, England.

Anne Repnow gardens near Heidelberg, Germany.  She started her career in scientific publishing but during that time took courses in horticulture and landscape design.  Fourteen years ago she followed her love of gardening into a new career as a garden designer.  Along the way she managed to accumulate over 500 snowdrop cultivars in her own garden.  Anne organizes the German snowdrop event Snowdrop Days in Luisenpark.  There is no mention of photography in her bio but the photographs speak for themselves.

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‘Dryad Gold Sovereign’ is the best of the Dryad Gold Group of snowdrops, featuring flowers twice the size of ‘Primrose Warburg’.

The heart of the book is descriptive profiles of 103 snowdrop cultivars illustrated with more than 310 well-chosen photographs.  Each snowdrop gets its own page with a full paragraph of description, including an explanation of its markings, an account of its discovery, and a focus on why it is in the book.  For ‘Dryad Gold Sovereign’ above, Repnow calls it “wonderfully prolific” and well-proportioned.  She also provides a chart with an approximation of bloom time, a ranking of vigor, and a relative price.

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‘Jonathan’ has beautiful, large, globular flowers with a face on the inner segments.  It is a lot like ‘Grumpy’ but much more vigorous.

For this post, I have scanned four pages from Repnow’s book profiling snowdrops that will appear in our 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue: ‘Trumps’, ‘Dryad Gold Sovereign’, ‘Jonathan’, and ‘Mrs. Macnamara’, which brings me to another reason I love this book.  Repnow does not just focus on snowdrops that are new and relatively unavailable to American gardeners, although there lots of those to drool over, but includes a large number snowdrops that are available in the US.  Many cultivars in Repnow’s two books are in our 2025 catalogue, while many more have been offered previously by Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.  This is not a book for dreamers, but for gardeners who want to grow snowdrops.

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‘Mrs. Macnamara’ is another favorite available in our 2025 catalogue.  One of the earliest to flower, usually by January 1 here, it combines all the fine characteristics of a classic snowdrop, which earned it a rare Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

If you would like to purchase Anne Repnow’s new book, which I highly recommend, you can order it directly from the author by clicking here.  Her first book is currently out-of-print, but she will be selling a limited number of copies at her Bank-to-Bend Lecture on March 8, 2025 at Winterthur in Delaware.

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  Scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Reply” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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Snowdrops: Live Radio Interview

Posted in bulbs for shade, snowdrops, winter, winter garden, winter interest with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 20, 2024 by Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens

This beautiful yellow snowdrop, ‘Spindlestone Surpise’, will be available in the 2025 Snowdrop Catalogue—no advance orders please.

For our current Snowdrop Catalogue, click here.  If you want to be notified about the next snowdrop catalogue, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com, and specify snowdrops.

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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, hellebores, and/or hostas.  Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.

The final snowdrop shipment of the 2024 season was sent out on Saturday. Now we turn to preparing all the wonderful snowdrop cultivars that will appear in the 2025 catalogue, including ‘Spindlestone Surprise’ above.

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The very rare snowflake, Leucojum ‘Null Punkte’ will also be offered next year.

I have found that for the health of the plants, all dividing and transplanting must occur before April 1. Plants dug up after that date do not fare well. The weather in the midAtlantic is perfect right now with very cool nights and highs in the mid-40s.

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I finally have enough of the double winter aconite, Eranthis ‘Richard Bish’, which I grew from seed, to include it in 2025.

On February 21, I did a live radio interview on snowdrops for a regional radio show called “Into the Garden”. You can listen to the interview here, which provides useful information on snowdrops and even covers hellebores and Carolyn’s Shade Gardens.

The lovely fall-blooming snowdrop, ‘Peter Gatehouse’, will also be available next year.

Thanks to all of you who ordered snowdrops this year, we had the most successful snowdrop sales in the history of our business. As always, your support of our small, family-owned and -operated business is very much appreciated.

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Blogs are a lot more fun for everyone, especially the writer, when readers leave comments.  Scroll down to the end of the page to the box where it says “Leave a Comment” and start typing—-it’s easy!

Carolyn

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Note: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.

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