It’s snowdrop festival time so join your nearest galanthophiles and enjoy some of the season’s most exquisitely beautiful flowers up close on one of the many Snowdrop Days happening around the country.
Among the most famous are the fabulous collection at Altamont Gardens 9th – 15th February.An opportunity for the green-fingered and general gardening enthusiast to view this unique collection, widely recognised as the second largest in Ireland. The collection was first started by Mrs. Corona North, former owner of the gardens, approximately 30 years ago and has over 100 named varieties in the collection. The Walled Garden Cafe is open serving hot drinks and delicious cakes.
You can have a snowdrop festival in your back garden too: just fill your borders with a selection of the dozens of exquisitely marked little bulbs available. You’ll find many varieties ready-potted in our garden centre here in Athlone; ‘Flore Pleno’ is a lovely double, ‘E.A. Bowles’ has purest white, almost globular flowers; Galanthus elwesii will grow in drier soils; and ‘S. Arnott’ is particularly tall and elegant.
