Harbingers of Spring

Snowdrops are another one of my passions. Over 20 years I have slowly bulked them up and now they can be found all over the property.

By Liz Knowles

There is no better harbinger of spring. If you’re wondering when is the best time to move a plant, I generally say “Now, when I’m thinking about it,” and that works for snowdrops.

While they are “in the green,” either blooming or when they’ve just finished, I dig up clumps of 50 or more bulbs, gently tease them apart into groups of about five bulbs and plant them about a foot apart.

Drifts of snowdrops. Photo by Liz Knowles.

Within two to three years they have bulked up again and are ready for further division. The various iris reticulata cultivars in the grass garden can be split and divided in a similar fashion.

All these Spring bulbs come from countries where the winters are wet, the soil is moist when they bloom, and they get a “summer baking” when the bulbs are dormant.

Snowdrops punctuated by yellow winter aconite. Photo by Liz Knowles

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Liz Knowles gardens at Larkspur Hollow in the Hockley Valley.