Snowdrops

Here in the countryside the snowdrop season is coming to an end. My friend Matt Bishop is a very very serious galanthophile or should I say galanthus expert. Here's a taster. I've had a tour of his own new nursery where he's nurturing varieties that will be for sale from his website when the sales go live in the summer. I always liked snowdrops because they look like baby goats faces with floppy ears. Matt travels to various snowdrop belts and has identified previously unidentified varieties. He named one variety 'Toby' after my late brother (they had worked in horticulture and studied landscape architecture together) so when he's reared these baby plants I'm going to get at least one of those and will have to find a good place for it. So if you're stuck for gift ideas from this summer I reckon a rare snowdrop from Matt would be a fantastically original present.