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Are you a galanthophile? That's a posh word for an enthusiastic collector of snowdrops. Why do people collect those tiny white harbingers of spring? Because there are many more varieties than you might expect.  To the untrained eye, those attractive clumps of white all look the same. But snowdrops come in a number of different species, and there's lots of variety within these. Generations of keen gardeners have been experimenting with snowdrops, producing an ever-growing number of cultivars - that is, new variants. The most common form of snowdrop is Galanthus nivalis, followed by the double form Galanthus nivalis 'Flore...

Protecting our horticultural heritage Tinnisburn Plants is home to the UK and Ireland National Plant Collection of Scilla (Chionodoxa). Also known as glory-of-the-snow, these delicate and delightful early spring flowers grow from bulbs to form a carpet of colour, helping to chase away the whites and greys of winter. The common name conjures the picture of these blue, white or pink flowers bursting through the melting snow, typically in alpine regions. Scilla (Chionodoxa) is native to the mountains of the eastern Mediterranean, particularly Crete, Cyprus and Turkey. It’s become a popular garden ornament, and Helen is hoping to further promote...

Thank you for your support through a challenging nine months I'm happy to repeat this story over and over. Back in mid-March, just before the flower show season sprang into life, everything was suddenly cancelled. All the stock I'd carefully planted and potted in anticipation of busy spring sales had nowhere to go. At the start of the most valueable months of the year, we nursery owners had nowhere to sell our plants. For a moment the outlook seemed bleak. Fortunately, a few months earlier I had finally got around to initiating the build of a website from which I...