If you want to have drifts of beautiful snowdrops, just like the photos we see of the collections at stately homes in England – then now is the time to get busy. This beautiful drift was photographed at Colesbourne Park in Gloucestershire when we were there in February.
Once flowering is over and before the leaves die down seems to be the best time to do this , they call this ” in the green ” and is also the best time to plant new bulbs so that they will soon settle in and build up reserves ready for flowering next year.
First of all, choose your clump to split, I usually split large clumps every 3 or 4 yrs.Find a reluctant husband to do the digging so that you can take the photos ! Make sure he digs deep enough, the bulbs are quite a way down.
Carry them over to a table so that you can split them. Just get your thumbs in between the bulbs and prise them gently apart. Husband had vanished by now so no photo of this being done !
This one clump has formed about a dozen new little clumps containing about 4 or 5 bulbs each
and were taken straight away ( mustn’t let them dry out ) over to where we had plenty of space, the area where we removed a pyracantha bush last autumn.
Plant them nice and deep in their new home
making sure that you cover all the white on the leaves and stems
and then just leave them to settle in and for the leaves to die back to replenish the bulbs so that you will have a wonderful display next year.
Just think, these tiny clumps will themselves need splitting in a few years time and again in a few years after that, then maybe we will all have drifts like these at Colesbourne Park.
Lovely Snowdrops, as was your previous post with the narcissus added.
Please don’t forget to check your Plot on Blotanical, you have messages there. We all want to welcome you and hope you will be an active member.
Thank you , Nell Jean for your lovely comment and making me feel so welcome.
Thanks for these great instructions on splitting snowdrops. Up till now I’ve just let them do their thing, and they do spread to an extent. But I’m sure they’d be all the stronger if they were occasionally split.
Barbara, snowdrops do seed around but take a long time to grow from seed to a flowering bulb, much quicker to divide any large clumps that you have if you are after drifts everywhere. 20 yrs ago I bought 50 bulbs of Galanthus nivalis, I now must have thousands !!
Stunning bunch of snowdrops! My first crocuses are just coming up now.
Diane, I think your winters are far harder than ours, so you must have been under a duvet of snow for so many months. You will now have the pleasure of all your spring bulbs to look forward to – lucky you !
Thank you Pauline, and thank you for visiting my blog. I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed your ‘tutorial’ on how to divide the bulbs. A picture really does tell a thousand words, when it comes to these type of things.
God bless husbands!