When Robin Lane Fox said in the Financial Times last February that Shepton Snowdrop Festival was one of the two best snowdrop festivals in England and Scotland the organisers were delighted, and they’ve risen to the challenge to make it better still for 2027.
The annual Festival returns in February for its eleventh year with a programme that celebrates the Snowdrop and the public’s passion for all things gardening.
Organisers are proud to support the small plant nurseries and the passionate people behind them who will feature at the Festival once again. Buying from independent nurseries helps keep money in the local economy, supports regional biodiversity and helps preserve rare and hard-to-find plant varieties. Long Acre Plants is one such example. A plantsman’s nursery specialising in unusual woodland plants, including snowdrops, and plants for shade, it’s situated in a hidden triangle of Somerset that slides into Dorset and Wiltshire. Owner, Nigel Rowlands, says: “Plants are the reason for this business and with a very few exceptions we grow what we like, for all the usual human reasons of association, perception of what is beautiful or just inexplicable love.” Alongside Long Acre will be more small independent plant nurseries, Dan Cooper garden tools, seed swop, and Mr Fox’s garden sculpture.
From mid-January through February, the Festival will celebrate the snowdrop with opportunities to see it in its full glory in garden openings, churchyards, walks and talks. A fitting tribute to the legacy of James Allen, the 19th century breeder of snowdrops who spent his life in Shepton Mallet and bred over 100 cultivars of the plant here.
After a challenging summer of the longest, driest, hottest conditions anyone can remember, the Festival will focus in part on how to mitigate the impact on plant life of similar weather next year.
Charles Dowding and Sarah Mead will be In Conversation discussing the benefits of no-dig and organic gardening. Charles Dowding has promoted organic, soil-friendly, and labour-efficient no-dig gardening since 1983. By avoiding tilling, soil structure and moisture are preserved, and thriving soil life and beneficial organisms are encouraged. At Yeo Valley Organic Garden, co-owner and gardener Sarah Mead and her team got through the summer with minimal watering, other than the vegetable garden. Both will share their experiences and advice as climate change impacts increasingly on trees, plants and gardening.
The popular Shepton Snowdrop Festival Gardeners Question and Advice session returns once again with a panel of highly entertaining and knowledgeable expert gardeners; Arthur Cole (The Newt in Somerset); James Cross (Head Gardener, Bishops Palace, Wells); Mike Burks (MD, Castle Gardens Group); Claire Greenslade (Freelance Head Gardener and Gertrude Jekyll expert). The Panel will answer questions and offer advice for coping with the new norm of hot, dry summers and wet winters.
Hot on the heels of his pop-up Atmosfloric Emporium in Marylebone Village, Sean Pritchard will give a talk and demonstrate how to create a beautiful natural display with the flowers and foraged materials available in the depths of winter. He splits his time between London and a 300-year-old farm labourer’s cottage in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, filled with abundant, colourful, and intentionally imperfect floral arrangements.
In the same way as the Festival supports small growers and nurseries, organisers encourage small artisan makers from the south west too. In the Artisan Market, visitors can enjoy and buy hand-drawn pointillism artworks; colourful mixed media jewellery; ceramics and flower paintings; handpainted birchwood flowers; fine wire sculptures; handcrafted silver jewellery; wheel thrown decorative and functional ceramics, and more.
The Festival Fringe kicks off on Friday 5 February with a ‘A Garden Love Story’, hosted by Festival Partner, Kilver Court. Filmmaker and garden enthusiast, Paul Weiland OBE, will share the remarkable metamorphoses of the historic Belcombe Court and its gardens; a former clothier’s house and Georgian landscape brought back to life with patience, passion and an extraordinary eye for detail. The following day, A Midsummer Nights Dream Fashion Show will feature beautiful, creative, theatrical outfits designed, made and modelled by talented individuals using pre-loved, upcycled and recycled materials.