Benington Lordship Gardens

Snowdrops Info

The gardens are famous for the huge drifts of naturalised Snowdrops that cover most of the moat
and the grounds around the Norman castle and house in February & March - please read more
about the Snowdrops Event at Benington Lordship.

Once overgrown the moat is now carefully managed so the Snowdrops can thrive, the grass is allowed to grow and cut late in the summer once the bulb foliage has died, in the autumn the thick carpet of Sycamore leaves is cleared and composted. The tall Sycamores provide an ideal habitat giving essential shade during hot summer months.

Two species make up the spectacular display, single Snowdrops Galanthus nivalis, and doubles, Galanthus nivalis "flore pleno". More varieties can be found scattered around the garden, a small collection was planted around the fruit trees by the Swimming Pool in the early 1990's.

With the number of varieties increasing every year more room was needed, most of the named varieties are now growing as a labelled collection in the mature shrub borders of the Walled Garden. New borders are being created to allow further expansion and planted with winter interest plants
such as Cornus and Helleborus.

Although there are many hundreds of named varieties many show little variation without close inspection, the Pool area is planted with mainly distinctive plants like Galanthus "Mighty Atom" notable for huge flowers up to two inches across, and the very dainty Galanthus gracilis "Highdown" which has blue tinted twisted leaves and small finely marked flowers.

Over 100 varieties now grow around the garden; many are easily overlooked amongst the masses but worth looking for, recently an unusual yellow form of G. nivalis was found growing near the ruin. Although the Walled Garden is currently closed during the Snowdrop Openings the collection can be seen as part of a guided walk. A photo gallery of all our varieties is under construction, this should,
be completed by March 2009, and can be seen here

There are limited sales of Snowdrops every spring (sold "in the green") but availability varies from
year to year, A full list of named varieties growing in the gardens is below.

We are always interested in swaps for something we haven't got. Please contact us by email if you would like to swap or buy a particular variety, we will reply with details of current stock and prices, bulbs can be posted (UK only) ,collected during the Snowdrop openings or by appointment.

Dec 2008: Due to plans to expand the planting of named varieties in several parts of the gardens we expect to have only a very limited supply of bulbs to sell/swap for the next few years. A list of what we have available in 2009 can be found here


 

 
Snowdrops
attributable to species		 Snowdrops
unattributable to species

 

 

 

 

 

 
G. angustifolius

G. caucasicus

G. cilicicus

G. corcyrensis

G. elwesii
G. elwesii var monostictus
G. elwesii "Barnes"
G. elwesii "Bill Baker's Early"
G. elwesii "Bill Baker's Large"
G. elwesii "Comet"
G. elwesii "Daphne's Scissors"
G. elwesii "David Shackleton"
G. elwesii "Elmley Lovett"
G. elwesii "Grumpy"

G. gracilis "Highdown"

G. ikariae

G. nivalis
G. nivalis "Anglesey Abbey"
G. nivalis "April Fool"
G. nivalis "Baronin Ransonette"
G. nivalis "Bitton"
G. nivalis "Blewbury Tart"
G. nivalis "Chedworth"
G. nivalis "Cockatoo"
G. nivalis "Flore Pleno"
G. nivalis "Greenish"
G. nivalis "Hambutt's Orchard"
G. nivalis "Lady Elphinstone"
G. nivalis "Pagoda"
G. nivalis "Pusey Green Tips"
G. nivalis "Sharlockii"
G. nivalis "Sharlockii Flore Pleno"
G. nivalis "Viridapice"
G. peshmenii

G. plicatus "Augustus"
G. plicatus "Baxendale's Late"
G. plicatus "Bowles' Large"
G. plicatus "Diggory"
G. plicatus "Sophie North"
G. plicatus "Upcher"
G. plicatus "Washfield Warham"
G. plicatus "Wendy's Gold"
G. plicatus subsp. byzantinus

G. reginae-olgae
G. reginae-olgae -subsp vernalis
G. reginae-olgae "Cambridge"
G. reginae-olgae "Tilebarn Jamie"

G. rizehensis

G. Transcaucasicus

G.x valentinei 		G. "Atkinsii"
G. "Armine"
G. "ex Bill Baker"
G. "Blewbury"
G. "Bill Bishop"
G. "Blaris"
G. "Brenda Troyle"
G. "Carpentry Shop"
G. "Colesbourne Colossus"
G. "Curly"
G. "Cordelia"
G. "Drummond Giant"
G. "Fieldgate Superb"
G. "Galatea"
G. "Greenfields"
G. "Green Necklace"
G. "Headbourne"
G. "Hill Poe"
G. "Hippolyta"
G. "Imbolc"
G. "Jaquenetta"
G. "James Backhouse"
G. "John Gray"
G. "Ketton"
G. "Lady Beatrix Stanley"
G. "Lavinia"
G. "Limetree"
G. "Little John"
G. "Magnet"
G. "Merlin"
G. "Mighty Atom"
G. "Moccas Form"
G. "Nerissa"
G. "Mrs Thompson"
G. "Mrs Backhouse No. 12"
G. "Neill Fraser"
G. "Ophelia"
G. "Pear Drop"
G. "Primrose Warburg"
G. "Purcell"
G. "Robin Hood"
G. "S.Arnott"
G. "Seagull"
G. "Shepton Merlin"
G. "Silverwells"
G. "St.Anne's"
G. "Straffan"
G. "Tiny Tim"
G. "Titania"
G. "Washfield Colesbourne"
G. "Wasp"
G. "West Porlock No. 6"
G. "West Porlock No. 7"
G. "White Wings"