Snowdrop Articles - Irish Snowdrops Group

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Snowdrop Articles

As papers become available from organised events or submitted by members, they will be listed here with a brief description and a link to download the full text. Please feel free to submit articles to us through emailing and attaching your text here.

Snowdrops by Wendy Walsh
Wendy Walsh has painted 3 snowdrop paintings. She has always loved painting white flowers, and these are 2 examples of her fine and delicate handling of this most difficult of colours to paint successfully....

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The three photos below are of snowdrops collected by Paddy Tobin from Lyrath Estate. They appear to be unknown cultivars to date and so have been given the title of "Lyrath Estate Yellow" for the present.

Lyrath Estate Hotel was developed on the ancestral home of the Wheeler-Cuffes in Kilkenny which was built 1863-6. The principal rooms of the house had bow windows opening out onto terraced gardens and the mature beech trees to the front of the house could certainly date from those early days and one might wistfully wonder if the snowdrops growing there might have been planted by, perhaps, Lady Charlotte Isabel Wheeler-Cuffe whose significant contribution to horticulture and botanical art both here and in Burma is related in Dr. E. Charles Nelson’s book, “Shadow among Splendours.” There was a scattered planting of Galanthus plicatus in this area with some small clumps of yellow-marked seedlings among the roots of the beech trees. (Paddy Tobin)

The Irish Society of Botanical Artists have produced a wonderful book entitled Heritage Irish Plants. They have a beautifully illustrated chapter on Snowdrops. The following is the introductory quote from this chapter:

"The snowdrop is the most welcome of all the flowers of the new year on account of its early appearance; and although one of the oldest and most abundant of all the hardy bulbs, one never tires of its modest beauty whatever may be its surroundings."

F. W. Burbidge, The Garden, 1877

The images opposite are from that publication which is available through the society's shop - click here to visit the shop page.

You can open a much larger version of each image here by clicking on the one you want.