It’s time to plant snowdrops!

Now is the time to plant the snowdrops if you want to see them bloom this winter. The Galanthus, that’s their Latin name, are mostly ordinary in the Middle East, Turkey and Iran, but they have conquered much larger territories.

When you install a few in a garden, it’s easy. We plant the bulbs, and we no longer take care of them. They seed themselves wherever they want. Snowdrops naturalize very well like all bulbs of tulips or wild daffodils.

It is also possible to help them spread even faster. Francis Courtois, from the F comme fleurs nursery, cultivates his snowdrop bulbs in Othe, in Meurthe-et-Moselle. He gives us his advice.

“Wait until the snowdrop has finished blooming to dig it up along with the leaves and roots. Divide the tufts by hand. Replant each small bundle of bulbs every 50 cm. They will multiply even faster!

Look around you: in villages, in unusual places, you will often see snowdrops. Usually, these are bulbs that have been thrown away during weeding or have fallen while transporting green waste. This is how real natural stands are created. ”

In the undergrowth around Liège, in Belgium, they thus conquered vast spaces

Francis courtois

to franceinfo

There are several species of snowdrops, but they all offer the same flowers in larger or smaller white bells. Difficult to differentiate them unless you are a specialist! And regardless, these bulbs bloom in the harshest months, when you need to see flowers the most!

In England, on the other hand, amateurs do not mess with snowdrops. Some even make it an obsession: “We observe a lot of hybrids in the Galanthus. In a single stand, it is possible to find several mutations. The English are crazy about it and they have already listed some 1,500 hybrids. This passion is contagious. At the beginning, we say to ourselves ‘they all look alike’ and little by little, we start to compare, search, find differences.

There are indeed single flowers, double flowers, double green hearts, double yellow hearts. But most often it is a petal that is half a millimeter taller. After a while, I gave up … Frankly, it’s really looking for the little beast … “

One last info: there are fall snowdrops whose flowers look like two drops of water like those that bloom in winter and early spring.

They are planted like colchicum in July-August and are still in bloom at this time.

Thanks to Francis Courtois. Its F comme Fleurs nursery is located at 12, Grande Rue, 54260 Othe. Phone: 06 12 88 14 77.