The best way to establish snowdrops in your French garden (or any garden) is to plant them "in the green". This means just after the snowdrops have flowered and while their leaves are still growing strongly. Post Brexit it has been really difficult to find "in the green' snowdrop bulbs in France, other than by digging up and dividing established clumps. This is all very well if you already have lots of snowdrops in your garden, but if you do not have any - well, where do you start?
This year Peter Nyssen (one of my favourite bulb suppliers) is sending "in the green bulbs" to France. They have three types, standard single flowered snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis simplex) - in my view the prettiest, cheapest and the easiest to establish - double flowered (Galanthus flore pleno) and a more unusual one, Galanthus Elwesii, which is bigger and has thicker leaves. If you want to establish snowdrops in your garden you must order them now. Here is a link to the page on their website:
Mine thrive in rich soil where they do not entirely dry out. I have my single flowering snowdrops under hydrangeas, which are deciduous, so the snowdrops flower when the hydrangeas have no leaves and disappear underground each spring. I also have some rarer Galanthus Greatorex (not sure of the exact variety) behind our old pigsty, where all of the old pig poo used to drain to - so the soil is lovely and rich.
There is no time to waste - order them and plant them as soon as you get them.
Comments