Last weekend was a bit of a twist on the Garden Tour theme. Instead of going in the summer, Lyn and I decided to visit gardens at snowdrop time, effectively doing a Snowdrop Tour. We were inspired by a trip to Ivy Croft in July when we met Roger Norman who was dividing snowdrop bulbs into sixteen pieces. He let it slip that he had a large collection of snowdrops, and indeed has an impressive list of snowdrops for sale. We decided to visit in February 2024 to see the snowdrops and stay at the same lovely B&B, Grove Farm in Kimbolton where Fiona made us feel so welcome.
Things didn't go according to plan in the week leading up to the Snowdrop Tour. Firstly Roger was not going to be at home on Saturday 10 February but was going to be selling snowdrops at Thenford Snowdrop Spectacular, and we couldn't even go to that instead because all the tickets were sold out. More on snowdrops at Thenford in the RHS Garden magazine on page 12 about Lord Heseltine's snowdrop collection having reached national collection status. Added to that there were dire warnings of extreme weather of all sorts making a trip away seem a bit rash and risky. How can one look at snowdrops in torrential wind and rain or even snow?
We agreed with Roger that we'd arrive on Friday afternoon to look at his snowdrops and buy some of course. We were almost there when we encountered a flood that the car in front wouldn't venture through and I thought we wouldn't make it. Just as I was about to do a paddle test in the water, a car drove carefully through, so I knew it was fine to gingerly drive through.
We had a wonderful visit, here are some of the highlights:
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