Giant snowdrops and big geraniums
Oh dear, this seems to be turning into a captain’s log of spectacular spills without the thrills. Because my history with Snowflakes and pelargoniums is somewhat potted, and potty, I’ve had to distract y’all with Dublin band The Big Geraniums.
Galanthus
The giant snowdrops I’m in love with in our garden flower around April but start pushing up around February and teasing me with anticipation for the whole of March. Called Snowflakes or Gallanthus, these readily form elegant swathes of nodding snowdrops that can be left to their own devices to give you really satisfying, self-propagating versions of snowdrops that you can see from a distance.
They’ll complement any snowdrops you’ve put at the front of borders, in window boxes or your spring containers on the patio. They’ve foliage quite like daffodils, and die back around June/July. If you’re the ‘dig up your tubers and bulbs’ kind of gardener who has storage for them in winter then you won’t do what I did, and plant a tiny, incey-wincey Pampas Grass right beside the dormant bulbs. Just as the Galanthus came into its own, the Pampas Grass took a growth spurt and knocked my poor snowflakes for six. I’ve tied back the pampas grass leaves (its sharp, blade-like leaves do the Dorian Grey thing for the magnificent Vegas-style head-dress feathers). And for now the Snowflakes seem to have adjusted (they don’t like it, no sir, they don’t like it) but the clump is bigger than it was last year. I’m afraid to dig them out and move them to a vantage point of their own in case I kill them. But I’ve to see how that pans out this month.
I also have to buy a geranium to replace the one I murdered by leaving it out to get caught in that freak snow we got on March 1st this year. Meh. Maybe I caught it in time…
áinehannah 