LOCAL HISTORY
Snowdrops in Northamptonshire
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The shy stars of spring
f ever there was a sight to warm the heart on a cold day, it is a carpet of snowdrops on a woodland floor. With their delicate heads poking through the hard ground and nodding in the winter winds, they send an optimistic message that spring is on the way, and that all is well. This month is the perfect time to wrap up warm and enjoy their blooms in one of our beautiful Northamptonshire historic gardens. 20
Laura Malpas looks closer at the history of the humble Snowdrop with suggestions where to see them locally.
Because these tiny but vigorous plants appear throughout the British Isles wherever conditions are favourable, it is easily assumed that they are a native species, or possibly introduced by the Romans two millennia ago. However, the snowdrop was introduced perhaps a mere 500 years ago. The earliest English reference to them appears in John Gerard’s Great Herbal in 1597, where he refers to them as ‘timely flouring bulbus Violet’.
February 2022 | NN Pulse Magazine | 22,000 Copies delivered every month door to door across Northamptonshire
