AS soon as New Year celebrations are over, gardeners look eagerly for signs of their snowdrops emerging. Along with winter aconites and Lenten hellebores, these small but beautiful bulbous plants bring gardens to life by carpeting the ground with their early flowers. Snowdrops, in the genus Galanthus (derived from the Greek word for milk), belong to the daffodil and nerine family Amaryllidaceae. There are 23 species originating mainly from the eastern Mediterranean region and hybridising has produced many cultivars and some new terminology.
A longing to collect the rarest and most novel snowdrops is known as ‘galanthomania’ and ‘galanthophiles’ are snowdrop lovers who meet for sales, swaps, talks and special lunches. One bulb of a new and unusual snowdrop will occasionally sell for four figures.
Each bulb usually produces just one flower from an arching flower stalk, as well as two or occasionally three narrow leaves. Closed, the flowers are like pendant drops but
