Stunning snowdrops display in Coombes

THIS splendid display of snowdrops at The Old Rectory in Coombes was captured on camera by Herald chief photographer Stephen Goodger.
S04552H14 The wood at The Old Rectory, Coombes, carpeted with snowdropsS04552H14 The wood at The Old Rectory, Coombes, carpeted with snowdrops
S04552H14 The wood at The Old Rectory, Coombes, carpeted with snowdrops

Areas of the two-and-a-half-acre hillside garden are carpeted with snowdrops.

Owner Robin Reeve said: “There are a considerable number out now and there will be more over the course of the next fortnight. They last a long time.

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“Everything is a little bit earlier this year but you would expect some snowdrops to be showing now.

S04551H14 Early snowdrops at The Old Rectory will be added to over the next two weeksS04551H14 Early snowdrops at The Old Rectory will be added to over the next two weeks
S04551H14 Early snowdrops at The Old Rectory will be added to over the next two weeks

“They are in various places in the garden, not just in the wood, but that is where the largest number are.”

Pat Nightingale, from Beeding and Bramber Horticultural Society, said the common snowdrop flowers from late winter to early spring.

The bulbs work best in a cool, partially-shaded position and moist humus-rich soil.

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“The best way to grow your own snowdrops is to get them ‘in the green’ from someone else who grows them,” she aded.

“This means digging up the plants when they have finished flowering, but while they still have their leaves, dividing the clumps and transplanting them into your own garden. These seem to do better than just planting bulbs.”

The churchyard at St Peter’s in Upper Beeding is another area usually carpeted in snowdrops, she added.