Posted on by susurrus

Nature’s Subtleties: Double Snowdrops

I rarely resist bending down to look inside a double snowdrop. Like most aspects of gardening, it’s hard on the knees, but uplifting to the soul.

The hurried passerby thinks all snowdrops are the same. It’s only by sparing those few extra moments to look closer that we start to appreciate nature’s subtleties.

35 Replies to “Nature’s Subtleties: Double Snowdrops”

  1. Indeed, I wouldn’t think anything other than they were all the same in passing. Nature’s uniqueness can easily escape us.

  2. Crazy about the hidden wonders of these beauties. Thanks for sharing..They need to be floated in a bowl, I guess, to show what nature has chosen to hide. What is the gorgeous black flower on your page??? Amazing.

    1. The black flower is a hellebore. I almost mentioned them in the post too – they’re another plant with nodding flowers that you really have to engage with if you want to see its hidden treasure. I’ve seen hellebores floated on water – they last quite a long time displayed that way. I don’t remember seeing snowdrops floating. I don’t know if they are such good swimmers, though the doubles would probably be OK.

  3. Magnificent aren’t they? I’ve never seen or heard of these, but won’t hesitate to bend down and have a peek next time I pass by snowdrops. Thanks for sharing 🙂

  5. Well now I’m going to have to look at those when they start growing by me. Who would’ve thought all that beauty was hiding underneath?

    1. The second one is distinctly yellow looking. I found a lovely, pure yellow one in my Mum’s garden and decided to try to multiply it, so I bought a book all about snowdrops that explained how best to go about it. This was before we routinely looked on the internet for advice. The trouble was the snowdrop had stopped flowering by then and, though I looked for it in the following years, I never saw it again.

    1. They are. I’m feeling slightly worried I might have encouraged some people to explore a field of singles though, which is not quite the same experience!

    1. There is a double version of the common snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis ‘Flore Pleno’, but these are more unusual ones I saw in plantswomen’s gardens.

      1. Thank you, Susan. The original was too large to fit my scanner so I had to photo shoot it. Not being proficient with my camera the copies always turn out darker on the blog. Consequently, the small glass flask is barely seen in the composition. The original is painted on white hot pressed watercolor paper.

  9. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a double snowdrop. I have bunches of them every year and maybe I have missed a double in there somewhere – I will certainly spend more time looking at them from now on!

    1. They’ve got a touch of that floral excess we both seem to appreciate. Now if you were to do one of your signature deconstruction shoots on one of them, that would be super-cute.

  11. So often what is real seems unreal. This snowdrop, for instance. And, yes, I can see that knees would complain about getting a closer look at this, but the soul requires it. What wonder.

  12. A closer look at nature is always worthwhile. Sometimes I even lie on the ground to get pictures of tiny beauties that would be otherwise missed.

    1. I often think about lying down, but I don’t think I’ve done it – though I’ve left many a garden with muddy knees. Do you get much response from people who see you lying on the ground?

      1. We live on a country road, and I mostly do my lying down in my yard. So not many people see me 😉

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