Jan 21st - Saddest Day of the Year?
January 21st is meant to be the saddest day of the year but we have no time to be gloomy as 5 weeks of Snowdrop opening starts on Saturday 2 February. The snow scenes are amazing and Jack Frost has drawn ferns on the glass panes of the tomato house in the walled kitchen garden. The greenhouse is warmer and the garden volunteers have been bunching up the dried flowers grown last Summer: boxes of lavender, Helipterum Roseum, helichrysum, Larkspur and Sea Lavender to the sell for the NGS.
A cheering thought in January are the catalogues that pop through the letterbox. The cover of one of these shows a clump of the sensational yellow Snowdrop, Elizabeth Harrison, one of which sold in 2012 for a record £725, now the bidding starts at £200!...shades of tulipmania! I should like to invest in much more modestly priced "Jonathan" described as having inner white segments that turn into an orange glow. The seed and summer bulb catalogues lying on the greenhouse bench, by the mugs of tea, can turn chilly January into sunny July!