The first Slovenian Snowdrop Festival

Joint second prize in the school snowdrop art competition.

I've spent the weekend in Slovenia, as a guest of the Ljubljana University Botanic Garden, which is hosting the first Slovenian Snowdrop Festival. This has taken the form of a series of guided tours, talks, demonstrations and an art competition. Snowdrops are much appreciated in Slovenia, occurring widely across the country as wild plants, and commonly in gardens. There is an old tradition of picking bunches for the home or for sale in the markets, so they have considerable cultural resonance in the country. The press had also recognised this, and the festival was featured by several television and radio shows over the weekend, even featuring on the main national news. It was fascinating to see how much interest there was in snowdrops, and it was an honour to be involved with the first of what everyone hopes will become an annual event. Many thanks to all the kind people who made my visit so pleasant.

Dr Jože Bavcon, Director of the Ljubljana University Botanic Garden, and pre-eminent Slovenian galanthophile with three books on snowdrops to his credit, explaining the fine points of some of his selections.

School children from across Slovenia contributed artworks featuring snowdrops - zvoncki - to the competition and the diversity and quality of interpretation was outstanding. What was extremely interesting was that it was clear that there was a distinction between those children who knew zvoncki to be Galanthus, and those who understood it to mean Leucojum vernum. Botanic garden staff could even correlate this to their own knowledge of regions with or without one of the genera.

On Friday there was a demonstration of lace-making - a strong local tradition, and a number of ladies produced some beautiful lace snowdrops.

Jože Bavcon has been studying the wild snowdrops of Slovenia for many years, and has an extensive collection in the cold frames, with some extremely attractive and interesting selections.

A large-flowered clone of Galanthus nivalis.

A pale virescent clone.

Much of the botanic garden has been colonised by masses of local Galanthus nivalis, with the local Crocus heuffelianus and other early bulbs. It's very interesting  to see that these are mostly singletons or in small tufts, and are not clump-forming, very different to the typical clump-forming G. nivalis seen in the UK. Unfortunately the weather was dull throughout the time I was there, so they remained tightly furled.

Celebrating 25 years of snowdrop open days at Hodsock Priory

George, Belinda, Andrew and Kat Buchanan in the snowdrop wood at Hodsock Priory

Twenty-five years ago Sir Andrew and Lady Buchanan decided to open their garden at Hodsock Priory, Nottinghamshire, for people to see their snowdrops, the first of the 'big' snowdrop gardens to do so. They quickly realised there was a market for snowdrop viewing and developed the garden and adjacent woodland into a winter garden destination, attracting huge numbers of visitors in snowdrop season. The garden was extensively replanted for winter effect under the guidance in the 1990s of Kate Garton and the snowdrop collection and plantings significantly expanded.

As with the Elwes family at Colesbourne the Buchanan's connection with snowdrops is ancestral. Andrew's grandmother was Lady Beatrix Stanley, commemorated by the eponymous double snowdrop and an Iris histrioides cultivar, and his mother Barbara Buchanan is commemorated by 'Barbara's Double' and 'St Anne's' for her residence. Andrew and Belinda have now passed the reins of the house and garden management to their son George and his wife Kat, who were the hosts this morning at a press day - a miraculously sunny and calm press day, after the terrible recent storms and dull weather.

My first contact with Hodsock came in 1997 when I was dispersing Primrose Warburg's collection of snowdrops and other plants from South Hayes. Primrose had acquired a lot of snowdropos from Lady Beatrix's old garden at Sibbertoft Manor and these were grown on a rough bank always called the Sibbertoft Bank, where they had self-sown and produced a number of excellent seedlings. I gave Kate Garton a number of clumps from the Sibbertoft Bank and these were planted in a particular area of the garden at Hodsock - see below. My solitary previous visit to Hodsock had been in the following year, so this revisit was long overdue - it certainly won't be another 17 years before I return!

The main display in the woodland area is of Galanthus nivalis 'Flore Pleno' - the common double snowdrop it may be but nothing creates such solid white carpets.

Hodsock Priory never was a priory; the main house dates from the 19th C, but the Tudor gatehouse is original.

  

It's good to see that the snowdrops from South Hayes are still remembered and honoured as having come from the legendary Primrose Warburg.

The South Hayes snowdrops have been happily sowing themselves and have made a nice patch of variable G. plicatus  (mostly), preserving the Sibbertoft genetics.

The garden round the house has been planned and planted for winter effect, and was looking good in the bright sunshine today.

This large, robust Scilla bifolia, which I've always known as 'Praecox' is a rare plant, but very much associated with the older generation of galanthophiles - it was nice to see it at Hodsock, linking the generations.

Plant of the Day 2016

I've set myself the challenge of tweeting an image of a different plant every day this year, along with a few summary words within the 140 character limit of a tweet. The tweets will be linked to this blog in a column on the right of the screen and can be seen there, or directly through Twitter by following @POTD16

The subject matter may be anything that catches my eye that day, so is bound to be diverse - let's see where this takes us!

Plant of the Year 2015: Monarda 'Gewitterwolke'

Monarda 'Gewitterwolke', October, with Miscanthus 'Yakushima Dwarf'

Last year my friend Jimi Blake, from Hunting Brook Gardens in Co. Wicklow, brought me a selection of Monarda cultivars that he had found to be good additions to his regularly changing garden assortment. Among them was the German selection 'Gewitterwolke' - the name means "thundercloud", which he particularly rated. This spring space was found to accommodate the small plant in the main border: it motored ahead and with a judicious pinching-out of the shoots quickly formed a nice multi-branched plant, nestling between Miscanthus 'Yakushima Dwarf' and Aruncus 'Horatio', which between them have given it the perfect setting for the rest of the year. It is perhaps because it worked so well with the surrounding plants that it caught my eye repeatedly through the season, and thus has become my Plant of the Year 2015.

The dusky flowers and bracts must have suggested the name; here 'Gewitterwolke'  is seen in August with Dahlia 'Freya's Paso Doble' behind, another candidate for Plant of the Year.

Evening light just catching the flowers. Aruncus 'Horatio' behind and Dahlia 'Twynings Revel' beyond (Plant of the Year 2013)

Another very pleasing combination was formed with Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Orangofield'

Another excellent Monarda also deserves a mention - 'Scorpio', a Piet Oudolf selection that plays a big part in his plantings at nearby Scampston Hall, where I got the plant from, in fact (promptly split and shared with Jimi). It's a slightly brighter purple and stood a bit higher than 'Gewitterwolke' this year (next year may even them out), and made - and makes - a superb contribution to the garden. Both are supposedly mildew resistant, though they both had some mildew by late September or early October, but insufficient to be unsightly or cause diminished growth. Such mildew-resistance is essential in any Monarda I'll choose in future.

Monarda 'Scorpio' in August

'Scorpio' (bottom right) still looking great in early October.

Seeding heads of 'Gewitterwolke' standing firm this week, alongside (though not visible) the Miscanthus and Aruncus, despite best efforts of Storms Desmond to Fred over the past month. 'Scorpio' is also still in good vertical condition.

Garden People 2015

Galanthophiles: Jörg Lebsa, Matt Bishop, Steve Thompson

The Plant School: Rosemary Campbell-Preston and her group, The Savill Garden.

Nursery folk: Sue Milliken and Kelly Dodson, Far Reaches Nursery, WA

note the trousers

Designer dude: Dave Demers

West meets East: Dan Hinkley and Tony Avent, with Kathy Musial, Heronswood

Propagator, writer, conservationist: Robbie Blackhall-Miles

Name-changers (sometimes): the RHS Nomenclature and Taxonomy Advisory Group

Mother: Susan Grimshaw, Winter Hill, Cookham.

Rhododendronistas: David Millais, Hannah Wilson, RHS Harlow Carr Rhododendron Show

Plant explorer: Jens Nielsen

Belgian dendrologists: Abraham Ramnmeloo, Philippe de Spoelberch, Arboretum Kalmthout

Author, photographer: Troy B. Marden, Burnby Hall Gardens

Groundsman: Ben Paterson, The Yorkshire Arboretum

Devonians: Keith Rushforth, Dick Fulcher, Sorbus Study Day, Ashill

Plantsman: Gary Keim, Harewood House

Hortihorts: Darran Jaques, Rob Stacewicz, Soho

Seventeen degrees

The almost unprecedented spell of mild weather continues unabated, and seems likely to extend into January. Although there was little sun, a warm moist wind has blown all day, with temperatures of  16-17^oC through the middle of the day. Such temperatures are comfortable for us, and help on the fuel bills, but are not good for the garden or the wider environment; actively growing plants will be vulnerable if a hard frost comes. Fitting these temperatures, or other 'abnormal' weather into the picture of global climate change is difficult, but surely they are part of the complex jigsaw that is only going to get muddled further as time goes on.

Crocus laevigatus 'fontenyi' at RV Rogers nurseries, Pickering, at lunchtime - the flowers open as far as they would go without recurving.

Galanthus elwesii 'Mrs Macnamara' usually comes into flower in early January: it's at least two weeks early this year.

'the colder the weather is, and the deeper the snow is, the fairer and larger is the floure, and the warmer that the weather is. the lesser is the floure, and worse coloured' - astute observation by John Gerard in the 16th Century, confirmed by the miserable flowers of Eranthis hyemalis 'Lightning' just appearing.

Well-developed flowers on this seedling hellebore

The mild weather made it quite a pleasure to get outside and get on with cutting down the perennials. Strong winds earlier in the month had wrecked most of the standing stems, and the next season is coming on apace below, so there was no compunction in going for it.

The Silver Sebrights found good pickings around the bases of the perennials - they're particularly fond of young snails.

A new Curator at Wisley

Matthew Pottage, at Chelsea, May 2015

I'm delighted to report that my friend Matthew Pottage has been appointed Curator of RHS Garden Wisley. It's been an unbroken ascent from student to the top job, which in itself is a tribute to both his qualities and the perception by RHS management of an asset to be nurtured and retained. The plantsmanship he brings has been evident in the areas in his charge for several years, and we can look forward to the garden going from strength to strength under his leadership. Great opportunities are in the pipeline as the new masterplan for the site is unfurled, and Matt is just the person to drive the changes forward. Congratulations - and good luck!