Snowdrops, Ladybirds & Grapefruit at the Chelsea Physic Garden

 

 

Since a recent garden visit had been cancelled due to the snowy weather I had been looking forward to visiting Chelsea Physic Garden’s Snowdrop day.  It is a garden I have not seen for about five years.  I have always considered it a real gem and it really lived up to expectation.  It is only just 4 acres in size so I knew that I would not be seeing whole swathes of snowdrops, but the charm of this beautiful walled garden lies in its originality. 

 

 

 

The visit started, not with a stroll through snowdrops, but with a fascinating walk and talk from the Garden’s Head of Education on the wonders of winter.  He focussed on how some of the garden’s plants and animals cope in winter.  We saw a few of the garden’s bumblebees from the garden’s own hives, a couple of its resident toads living beneath their own log pile house in the wildlife area and numerous gnat larvae from the pond.  Hibernating for the winter were ladybirds.  What I had not realised that they could well be using the crevices in the really large cork oak in the garden as a choice place to spend their winter.  Ladybirds contain a type of antifreeze to help them survive the cold!

  

 

 

 

Evergreen trees use different mechanisms to cope with the cold.  The shape of the leaves on the Yew tree and the shine and thickness of the leaves on a Magnolia tree with all help them to retain water and protect.  Particularly important in the ground is frozen for a long period of time.  A highlight for me was the grapefruit.  The garden has the most northerly outdoor fruiting grapefruit tree in the world.  Yes, there it was in the middle of a UK winter with large fruit on the tree.  One had fallen on the floor so it was cut open for us to see and just like us it had a large thick coat on help protect it from the cold.  The fruit is used in the garden to make marmalade.

 

 

 

 I learnt that the botanical name for snowdrops Galanthus is derived from the Greek meaning milk (gala) and flower (anthos).    A special snowdrop trial had been established containing 15 different varieties.  It weaved through some of the winter flowering bushes and trees.  Not only was it a visual spectacle you were continually seeking the origins of a tantalising scent.  As the garden is full of aroma from Winter Box, Sarcococca confusa and various types of Daphne.  The Daphne Bholua Jacqueline Postill photographed above was stunning.

There was so much to see, in addition to the snowdrops, in this garden in early February.  An inspiration for any gardener.  If you have easy access to central London I would highly recommend it.  I already have another visit planned for later in the year.

Snowdrop Gardens

Are you one of the lucky people who has snowdrops in their garden?  They are justifiably popular and well deserve the accolade as one of the first signs of spring.  It lifts ones spirits to see them flowering right now.

I have a couple of very large clumps with extremely bulbous flower heads in my garden.  They were planted by the previous owner, so I do not know the variety.  They also flower late and bloom well into late March.  This means that by the time the clumps are ready to divide it is April.  And it is division that they are in desperate need of.  That, and the fact that they are so beautiful, that I would like to create quite a few more clumps.   April is such a busy time in the garden that I never seem to move onto to this task.

So this year when they started peeping their heads above the ground I decided to defy the experts advice.  I would not wait until the bulbs had stopped flowering before I divided the clump, but would try to split now, quickly whilst the soil was not frozen. Armed with  a large fork and long handled fork I dug down.  Not an easy task as the bulbs were well over 12 inches into the soil.  4 bulbs were prised out of the ground. Unfortunately the stems also came off two of them.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

I replanted the 4 bulbs.  I think it is unlikely that the two still with stme will flower this year, but you never know.  Hopefully all four will flower next year.  So my task was accomplished.  If you are trying this next year it would perhaps be easier with smaller snowdrop bulbs not planted quite so deep.  Dividing the clumps with still be on my list of gardening tasks this April.

 





 

 

If you like to see large drifts of snowdrops then there is bound to be a open snowdrop garden close to you.  My favourite site for finding one is National Gardens Scheme's Snowdrop Garden Openings.  Openings usually take place in early to mid February.  Half term fits neatly into this period so the children can get to see them as well.

If, like me, you live close to London the Chelsea Physic Garden has Snowdrop Days from 2 to 10th February.  Thats where I'll be visiting.  Hope you manage to visit one as well.