Country Notebook - Snowdrops

The snowdrops in the copse by my house are now in full-stride, despite the recent cold and rain.

Our brave little flowers are true to type in that they grow near a river - apparently you are more likely to see snowdrops near waterways because they can be spread by floodwaters. 

Like many other flowers, they need pollinating insects to form seed, but of course the snowdrop blooms when few such insects are around. So it’s when the little bulbs are washed away and deposited by floods that new colonies tend to occur.

The most extravagant snowdrop display of them all might not be down to Mother Nature at all. The famous flowers that bloom in Exmoor’s Snowdrop Valley probably occur thanks to the Benedictine monks who may, or may not, have introduced them from Southern Europe almost 1,000 years ago.

There is no real evidence that snowdrops are native to Britain and I, for one, was surprised to learn that generally they do not thrive well in Northern Europe. It is thought they were brought here from Southern Europe by Benedictine monks in the 11th century because of their religious symbolism.

Candlemas (February 2nd) is the feast of purification of the Virgin Mary and in mediaeval times the snowdrop was regarded as a suitably white and pure symbol of the theme.

And they do indeed thrive around monastic sites around the country. Was it thanks to the priory at Dunster that Snowdrop Valley may have originally come into such fantastic floral being?

The monks had trout ponds in the upper part of the Avill Valley and some say it was they who introduced the snowdrops there in the 13th century. If so, we have a lot to thank them for – Snowdrop Valley should be considered as one of the true Wonders of the West Country.