Sunday, March 21, 2010

So you like snowdrops...

Then come with me on a stroll through our garden colony, where there are myriads of them right now. Before we begin, I'd like to dedicate this post to Deborah at Kilbourne Grove. She has a great blog and a fondness for snowdrops, and I learned the word "pleach" from her.

Here are some examples along the path leading to my allotment (click to enlarge any photo):

I especially like the snowdrops under the corkscrew hazelnut above, and the beautification of the compost silo below.



My neighbor has the most beautiful snowdrops in my immediate vicinity - the same neighbor who has the most beautiful dahlias and asters - I was lucky in my choice of location! Here are some photos, not that great since I didn't want to climb over the fence and he wasn't "home".

My own garden is also full of snowdrops, for which I can't take any credit, as they were planted by my predecessors. Here some impressions:
In one case I unwittingly did my best to smother them by dumping a pile of earth along the side of the path, but the hardy little plants poked right through and look stronger than ever:
In German these flowers are known as "little snow bells" (Schneeglöckchen). Here's some more next to my attempt to build a shelter for hedgehogs, mostly destroyed in the big storm we had a few weeks ago.
And one more shot of the snowdrops next to our patio:

Snowdrops are certainly charming, but I think the other early spring flowers blooming at the same time are just as lovely. Here a brief impression of some of our crocuses and dwarf irises as final shot in this post:

10 comments:

  1. Barbara, thank you! It's such a pleasure to see them grow in masses, naturally, like they've always been there. I just planted my first snowdrops this year.

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  2. What an amazing collection of snowdrops. I, like Deborah, have been suffering snowdrop envy for most of this late-winter. I'm not sure if they'll grow well here, but I've become quite determined to try!

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  3. You are lucky to have neighbors with beautiful flowers, just like you! My neighbors all seem to like turf grass and that's about it.

    Christine in Alaska

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  4. Das sieht ja alles schon sehr schön frühlingshaft bei Dir in den Anlage aus! LG Luzia.

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  5. Lovely snowdrops! My garden is of tropical plants. The best time to garden is in the morning or evening. i prefer doing it in the morning.

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  6. Such beautiful little flowers and probably my favourites of all . You have some happy and healthy colonies there Barbara :)

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  7. Barbara, wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I am so envious, what a gorgeous, gorgeous display. I am hoping in about 10 years, I will have half the number of you! And thank you for thinking of me with this post, much appreciated.
    I also love you corkscrew hazel in the first shot, do you know we paid $50 for one (huge) branch of it at the flower shop.

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  8. Lovely post, Barbara. Your snowdrops are gorgeous!

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  9. The pretty snowdrops, crocus and iris are screaming spring! When at our Gartenplatz, (Oftersheim) we had a Mole (I read below post)making tunnels all over the place. We had a time trying to fight him/her out of the platz. We had great neighbors at our gartenplatz as do you…

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  10. I love that you made a shelter for hedgehogs but I'm sorry it got smushed. I used to live in Bamberg as a child and still remember the gardens vividly! You just can't replicate that kind of charm here in the United States.

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