Sweet snowdrops are blooming for spring

Snowdrops have inspired poets from Wordsworth to Tennyson and many more with their annual display of resilience and hope of an approaching spring after a long, dark winter.

Cork gardener Hester Forde shares their sentiments every year as she describes being “thoroughly excited” at the first appearance of the nodding, bell-shaped white flower in her Cosheen garden, just outside Glounthaune village.

Despite biblical rain the previous night, Hester likes what she sees during a break from the seemingly endless precipitation.

Chatting to Irish Country Living, she says, “It’s lovely; I’m looking out the window, and there are all of these drifts of white here and there, and it is just so pleasing to the eye, and it lifts you on a very dull day,” she says, with a pleasant Cork lilt.

Hester is also basking in the success of the Snowdrop Gala in Ballykealey House in Carlow the previous weekend. Now in its 15th year, she helps to organise it with expert Robert Miller of Altamont Plants, one of Ireland’s leading nurseries. Ahead of her is preparation for a prestigious but “a bit daunting” lecture she will give in Philadelphia on snowdrops at the end of February.

But what is the appeal of the small white flower that now sees a myriad of events over Snowdrop Month in Carlow, and many others nationwide? “I’m not a serious nut now; there are a lot more serious nuts than me,” she says, laughing.

Making space

“I have a lot of what you call the early snowdrops – so from December onwards, to be able to go outdoors and see something in bloom is what I love about snowdrops,” explains Hester. “In poetry, they are harbingers of spring but they really are winter bloomers. We are still in winter, and that’s their appeal. We had 145 people [in Carlow] looking at snowdrops at the Snowdrop Gala,” she enthuses. It’s an event she says is growing in popularity every year and something people really look forward to as a sign of a change of season and the promise of longer days ahead.

On how many different varieties she has in her small suburban garden, Hester replies: “I stopped counting, and I’m not a nut; there are people that have hundreds upon hundreds. I like ones that produce good big flowers and that I can spot easily in the garden, and I also have a few of what we call the connoisseur varieties.

“It’s a small garden, so I couldn’t have hundreds and hundreds, but I don’t know [the number] I stopped when I went over the hundred,” she says matter-of-factly.

“That’s a shocking disease,” she jokes, laughing when asked if she is always on the lookout for new varieties. “Snowdrops in a way have become – if you remember way back in history – what tulips were. Big money changed hands for tulips, and it is the very same for snowdrops. That craze for snowdrops has not stopped.”

Some of the new variety bulbs can go right up to €100-€150 per bulb. “There was one there a few years ago which made a €1,000 a bulb,” recalls Hester.

While early February has traditionally been the time of the snowdrop, changes to our weather patterns means the snowdrop is appearing earlier and earlier every year.

“The climate has changed so much that normally we would have had the gala in February, but now we’ve brought it to the last weekend in January. This year it’s the second last and next year it will be second last because if we waited really [any longer], a lot of the snowdrops would be gone.

“By getting different varieties, you can have them flowering from December all the way through January and February and even a little bit beyond,” she tells Irish Country Living.

Gardening and growing has been a huge part of the retired teacher’s life since her childhood.  

“I grew up on a farm, so I had plenty of space for doing things, and my dad – because it was a small farm [in Ballinhassig] – he also worked for Cork Corporation in the parks department, so he would bring home bulbs and bits that were leftover from a job. I remember any few pence I had would be saved to go into Atkins in the city to buy seeds or bulbs.”

She took that interest with her into her working life as a primary school teacher, recalling a fabulous garden she helped to develop in the North Monastery in Cork, her involvement in the Green Schools programme and class allotments.

It’s something Hester still believes needs to be available to every school in the country and has so many benefits. “In England, it’s very different, and horticulture is part of the system for primary schools. It’s not here, and it’s something I fought for years for, and it’s still not happening.”

Benefits of nature

“Not every child is geared towards the three Rs [reading, writing, arithmetic], and to be able to bring them out into nature is fantastic.

“As a teacher, I worked in the inner city all my life. I started in Finglas [in Dublin], and they had absolutely no idea in the world that a potato comes from the ground. I remember the excitement when I’d bring a class out to dig a worm; you have no idea. They’d never seen a worm or a beetle or anything. There should be more of it [horticulture in schools].”

Gardening had become an increasing part of her life even when working, so when the opportunity to retire early came up, she grasped it to fulfil her horticulture ambitions. She is now a popular speaker and regularly opens Cosheen Garden to the public.

While Hester modestly doesn’t consider herself a connoisseur, she encourages others to embrace the joy of snowdrops, no matter what size of garden or patio they have.

“I like growing them, but I’m no expert. I think Robert Miller [Altamont] is brilliant because he’s up there all day every day [in Altamont Plants in Carlow] working with snowdrops,” she says. “He has an incredible selection for sale from the ordinary prices or others if you want to break the budget.”

For those starting out, she advises to opt for the “good doers” or hardy varieties like ‘Atkinsii’, ‘elwesii’ or ‘Arnott’ growing in a pot and enjoy what Tennyson called ‘a February fair-maid’ for the years ahead.

See hesterfordegarden.com