The romance of the new

Steffie Shields is excited by new plants in Lincolnshire’s winter gardens.

Snowdrops are an essential constituent for the winter garden, and key to any wildlife garden. By mid-February thousands of milk-white miniature flowers on slender stems are usually nodding in damp woodland, spreading joy and honey fragrance wherever they are well-established.

If you are looking for advice from an expert, take a trip to Woodlands Nursery in Fotherby, near Louth, open on Sunday 23rd February in aid of the National Garden Scheme. Ann and Bob Armstrong have created a treasure trove of shade-loving plants. You are bound to discover exciting ‘new-to-you’ specimens to refresh and elevate your own winter garden.

As snowdrops continue to prosper in a multitude of historic parks and gardens across the county, more and more ornamental hybrids have been created by crossing the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, with the pleated Galanthus plicatus originating from the Crimean region. The latter’s slightly broader, bluish or greyish green leaves sport edges folded back away from the upper surface.

St Valentine’s Day is the evergreen highlight this month, helping to keep passion alive! Might you be looking for something different to give to someone special? If they are gardeners, lovers of gardens, or better still collectors of snowdrops, known as galanthophiles, here’s an idea for a loving, aptly named gift: Galanthus valentinei – also known as G. ‘Valentine’. Every bulb of this hybrid might set you back £25!

Better than a romantic bunch of roses, it will hopefully double up over the years, a considerably longer-lasting reward for love. The outer segments of its flowers are occasionally marked with strong green at their tips in addition to its variable green markings on the inner segments.

Go outdoors
A number of gardens will be opening to the public offering a healthy winter walk in the crisp, chill air. We all need to be more active and lose those Christmas festive pounds. Wrap up warm and stride out!

Gunby Hall, the popular National Trust haunt, offers an attractive and easy one-mile circuit to and from the ice house pond.

What could be more magical and invigorating than a circuit of the lake at Belton House? Let dreamy thoughts of carpets of pristine snowdrops emerging en masse from seemingly lifeless, grimy soil under barren trees act as an incentive. By defying the elements, somehow these amazing, delicate plants bring optimism and mental uplift.

Choose a refreshingly new destination to inspire design and planting ideas. The anticipation of coming across the occasional new-to-you plant lifts the fun of exploration to another level.

Make Elsham Hall your half-term family outing. Amongst hundreds of thousands of snowdrops on parade, challenge your children to find the green ‘kiss’ of the ‘Giant Snowdrop’ which was discovered in 1874 on a visit to Turkey by distant relative of the family, Henry John Elwes, and now known as Galanthus elwesii.

As you stroll, you too will defy the weather. Enjoy taking in the view, changing and charming with every step. Gardens are stimulating because they are always on the move. Be aware and remember that so much life is happening unseen, underneath the ground, let alone all around. Roots will be growing, shoots of perennials silently on the move, and buds on shrubs’ branches swelling.

Know too that there is so much more than meets the eye. Not only did the ancient Greeks use snowdrops for their powerful mind-altering effects; for hundreds of years they have been used for the treatment of traumatic injuries to the nervous system. The snowdrop bulb is now approved for the management of Alzheimer’s disease.

New specimens
Last February, I finally made it to Saxby’s Brightwater Gardens, a memorable bucket-list outing. These 21st-century formal and informal designs attract many visitors and garden club members through every season – eight acres including wildflower meadows and woodland re-maturing superbly. I came across several new-to-me specimen plants, including Galanthus plicatus ‘Warham’.

The outer segments are wholly white and the inner segments have a large, green mark. The vicar of Warham from 1874,  Reverend Charles T Digby (1845-1923) discovered this snowdrop originally in a garden in his Norfolk village. It was reputedly an offspring of some of those bulbs brought back home from the Crimea by returning soldiers who had noticed the flowers emerging on the battlefield. As with the later World War I poppies, the bulbs brought solace and signs of hope.

I’m sorry to report that Brightwater Gardens will be closed this year. The good news is its Green Burial Ground remains fully open (as does the Hay Barn). So you can still follow this memorable walk with panoramic views over the West Lindsey countryside down to the maturing woodland resting place, ornamented with a consoling tapestry of glistening snowdrops and wild daffodils. Then, resolve to return in February 2026, to discover Brightwater Gardens’ growing hellebore collection, some of which are illustrated here.

The ‘Christmas rose’ is familiar to most. The captivating description ‘snow rose’ is equally appropriate. On your next garden centre trip, look out for Helleborus x nigercors HGC® Ice Breaker® Max, a ‘snow rose’ which puts on a long-lasting show of creamy green flowers from December through to March. Meanwhile Helleborus x hybridus ‘Ice N’ Roses’ will bring sugar-candy colours to enliven any setting.

Plant-naming is a fascinating topic. Research online reveals several other ‘Ice Breaker’ hellebores as trade names registered with the Royal Horticultural Society, including ‘Ice Breaker Fancy’ and ‘Ice Breaker Prelude’.

Thanks to our love of ‘the new’, the science of hybridisation and recording unique specimens by adding people’s names, or connected place names, has become increasingly complex. Cleverly worded plant identities may be big business, but some are far too hard to remember and too long for plant labels!

Over 30 years ago, Hugh and Liz Nunn bred hellebores in Harvington, near Evesham in Worcestershire.

They attached and registered the prefix ‘Harvington’ to those hellebores selected as the very best of their kind. Their daughter Penny moved to Lincolnshire and her Twelve Nunns nursery, based in Stamford, sells Harvington Hellebores® such as the delightful hybrid ‘Harvington Single Yellow Speckled’ through their online shop – also Roscoeas, Trilliums and Erythroniums.

Driving home from Saxby last year, elated with a new snowdrop for my collection, I was amused that a lady called Primrose found this distinctive yellow-capped flower in her garden. The wife of an Oxford-based botanist, Primrose Warburg (1920-1996), a famous Galanthus collector, called this old cultivar ‘Yellow Top’, owing to its clear yellow ovary. Its inner petals have a distinctive yellow-green mark across each notch.

At the dawn of 2025, now named Galanthus ‘Primrose Warburg’, she is already peeking. I cannot wait for her moment to shine!

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