What better activity for two guests to enjoy than visiting excellent snowdrop gardens in mid February? Last Saturday was a perfect day for visiting Cotswold Farm Gardens where the snowdrops were fit to satisfy any galanthophile's desire to learn more about the 80 different varieties of snowdrops, many of which have labels identifying them.
The Arts and Crafts garden was designed by Norman Jewson in the 1930s; it's laid out on descending levels, enclosed by Cotswold stone walls and yew hedges. It overlooks a quiet valley and has all year round interest. The garden is open for snowdrops in every Monday in February, from 11am-3pm, and for the NGS on the 18th and 19th of February, and also in June and September for the NGS.
It's not just about the gardens at Cotswold Farm, the buildings are also fantastic, here the dovecote is set off beautifully, as you can see here by a pair of closely cropped box structures.
The photo above shows the lily pond in the Jewson Terrace, taken from the Top Terrace; there are palmate and great crested newts in there, although not in evidence last Saturday
This is another of the geometric beds on the Jewson Terrace with a beautifully trimmed bit of topiary in the foreground
These steps echo those at the Dovecote, or maybe vice versa. This lovely symmetrically arranged door from the house is delightful; the paving below has rock roses growing between them which must be glorious to see when they are in flower. I'm going to try and replicate the idea in my garden.
This is another view of the top terrace
I took the photo above to show how the clumps of snowdrops are beautifully labelled
Above a gorgeous
Cornus mas tree underplanted with snowdrops, crocuses, and hellebores
Above is a photo of the step garden which as the name suggests descends down several levels; with planting either side of Sarcoccoca and Daphne odora making a wonderfully perfumed walkway
It leads down to the Knot Garden, the Bog garden and up through the Little Forest, the photo above shows the Little forest from above
Above the label says G. Elwesii seedling amidst lots of other varieties of snowdrops
On the way out, I saw this example of the wonderful topiary in lots of parts of the garden.
There is one last chance to see their snowdrops next Monday 27 February from 11am-3pm.
I bought 4 snowdrops which were well labelled and in excellent condition: G. Armine, G. Elmley Lovett, G. green Necklace, G. Cotswold Farm.
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