My name is Janet, not Judy and I am now retired after working 29 years as a development engineer for the same telecommunications firm. I am married to John, who is also a development engineer and the web master for this site. He also takes all of the photographs.

We share our home and garden with our four Labradors, Molly (aged 11), Rosie (aged 10), Lulu (aged 8) and India (aged 6).

We lost our faithful old friend Topaz (aged 12) who unexpectedly died in April 2006 after a short illness. She was originally a brood bitch from the same kennel where we had acquired Molly from as a puppy. When she was retired from breeding she came to live with us. Since her death we have acquired two more retired bitches from the same kennel; Lulu who is Topaz’s daughter and India who is Topaz’s granddaughter. Molly is related to both of them. Poor Rosie, she is the odd one out, being the only black one (the other three are yellow).

      
Topaz
   
Lulu                                 India
   
Molly                               Rosie

My interest in snowdrops started in 1987 after reading a book entitled “The Winter Garden” which had the concept of “why look at bare earth all winter when there are numerous plants that will flower during this period?” Snowdrops were mentioned, briefly and I became intrigued with these plants when I found out that there were more than two sorts, that is, the common single and double snowdrop. I then started a quest to find and collect as many varieties that I could; a quest that becomes more difficult with the numerous new varieties that are introduced every year.

Of course no winter flowering garden can rely solely on snowdrops, so I grow numerous winter flowering plants, including viburnum, mahonia, hamamelis and hellebores, to mention a few.

This is our second version of the web site and has been launched to coincide with the 10^th anniversary of Judy’s death.

I hope that all snowdrop growers will find something of interest on the site. Until the recently published book by Matt Bishop et al, there has been very little in the way of snowdrop literature, especially pictorial. I am hoping that this web site will help to bridge that gap.

We have completely re-vamped the photos, hoping that the small selection we have chosen will be superior to their predecessors. More photos will be added in due
 course, possibly after the next flowering season.

All of my garden snowdrops are grown in aquatic baskets so the numbers that I grow of each variety are relatively small. Each summer after lifting these baskets any surplus snowdrops will be offered for sale.

In 2004 we started experimenting in propagating by twin-scaling. After great success with this method we have continued in 2005 and 2006 to propagate on average 100 varieties each year. Unfortunately they all take time to grow, but by 2007/8 I hope to be able to offer these bulbs for sale, as well as the garden grown surplus ones.

At present I currently sell the majority of my snowdrops as dormant bulbs, selling “in the green” only if I’m running out of space.

I prefer to sell as dormant bulbs because I believe that the bulbs will have a better survival rate; as they are all in baskets there is no difficulty in finding them when dormant and it also suits my life style. Why do I want to stand out in the garden freezing in February or March digging up the snowdrops; at his time of year I am busy visiting snowdrop gardens and up-dating my computer with the numerous notes that I have written the previous year.

Just because I prefer to sell my snowdrops as dormant bulbs this does not mean that I am opposed to “in the green” sales. I purchase the majority of my snowdrops as either potted up plants or “in the green” mail order.

I am sorry but I do not hold open days as they are far too disruptive for me and the dogs.

All the articles or comments contained on this web site are purely my own views, written from my own experiences. Please bear this in mind when reading them.

I hope you enjoy browsing through this site and who knows, you too may develop a passion for snowdrops, but beware, it can be a slow process finding the rarities or a costly process if you must have every plant that has been named.

JANET

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