For the first time, the Shepton Snowdrop Festival has teamed up with Somerset’s finest snowdrop gardens to create the Great Snowdrop Gardens Trail of Somerset.
The annual Festival has become increasingly popular, drawing visitors from far and wide including tours of snowdrop lovers from overseas. Tour organisers and individual visitors to the Festival often ask about the best places to see snowdrops; the new Great Snowdrop Gardens Trail of Somerset will take people to some of the finest and most interesting snowdrop gardens in the county.
Shepton Snowdrops is thrilled to have the support of Abbigail Willis for the Trail. Somerset has a remarkable range of gardens, as Abigail, author of Secret Gardens of Somerset, knows very well:
“February is often such a bleak time of year so thank goodness for galanthus! How fabulous to be able to get out into some of Somerset’s most iconic gardens and celebrate the magical charm of snowdrops. I hope visitors and residents alike will enjoy following the Great Snowdrops Garden Trail and be inspired to return as the seasons unfold. Somerset’s gardens are so special and worth exploring – whatever the time of year!”
The county of Somerset has a great deal to offer. Shepton Snowdrop Festival organisers hope to see visitors to the Festival from further afield plan to stay a little longer, visit the gardens and enjoy all that the county has to offer. The Festival team has been working with Classic Cottages who have a great selection of cottages across Somerset.
Yeo Valley Organic Garden, one of only a handful of Soil Association accredited ornamental gardens, has been opening for the two days of the Shepton Snowdrop Festival for the last few years. At Yeo Valley, visitors can enjoy six and a half acres of bold and whimsical contemporary planting, and snowdrop bulbs in their thousands.
At the Bishops Palace, in Wells, carpets of snowdrops welcome visitors to the gardens. Against a backdrop of the 800 year old medieval palace, flowing wells and outer walls, a Snowdrop Walk takes visitors through the beautifully landscaped grounds, along the moat banks and into the Arboretum.
At Hestercombe Gardens, whose formal gardens were a collaboration between Gertrude Jekyll and Sir Edwin Lutyens, the valley of the landscape garden is carpeted with snowdrops. Over a decade ago, 50,000 snowdrops were planted in Rook Wood creating a more and more magnificent display each year.
The two acres of Grade 1 listed gardens at East Lambrook Manor were created by Margery Fish, a plantswoman and galanthophile, after she moved there in 1937. She liked green flowers, especially the green-marked snowdrops and championed the double snowdrops because they open even in dim light. This is an iconic garden for snowdrop lovers. Many varieties of snowdrop grow in profusion along the sides of the stream that runs through the garden, alongside other early spring flowers.
The award-winning Forde Abbey gardens, home to the highest powered fountain in the country, are nestled in picturesque countryside on the border of Somerset. Snowdrops grow in drifts under the avenue of lime trees; topiary-lined vistas, an arboretum, and swathes of other early spring bulbs and camelias herald the start of spring.
Regulars to Dunster Castle are familiar with the garden’s Mediterranean and subtropical plants but early in the year swathes of snowdrops emerge in the wooded river gardens. Visitors to the castle and the riverside gardens are invited to join gardeners in planting snowdrops.
Each year, the Snowdrop Valley, near Wedddon Cross, is transformed. The hidden woodland, a private valley once only known to locals, is blanketed with a natural carpet of many thousands of snowdrops. Snowdrop Valley is a magnificent spectacle in Exmoor National Park.
Shepton Snowdrop Festival also works closely with Kilver Court in Shepton Mallet, whose gardens are based on an award-winning RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden, designed by multi-Gold-medal winner George Whitelegg. Although not a snowdrop garden as yet, Kilver Court is also open for the Festival and is another longstanding partner garden and sponsor of the Festival; the beautiful historic winter garden is set against the backdrop of a majestic railway viaduct and lake.