This weekend we headed up into Perthshire for the Scottish Snowdrop Festival. Annually venues all over Scotland open to the public between the end of January to the middle of March to show off their snowdrop displays. We liked the sound of Black Spout Wood near Pitlochry, so headed there. The pouring rain that was drowning the central belt was a dense fluttering of snow further north. Black Spout Wood is a pretty place. It is home to a waterfall that tumbles over 60m down through a deep gorge. You get a fantastic view of it from a promontory built by the local Rotary Club. Excavations in the wood date occupation there back to around 250BC to 50AD. It is thought that timber towers perched on the cliff above the Edradour Burn, not for defensive purposes but for display. Sadly the display of snowdrops was not up to much. The ones in my photo were just about it.
I know Snowdrops are traditionally thought to flower on Candlemas (2nd Feb) so maybe they had been and gone already. Who knows? Nature does it’s own thing. There have been plenty out in the gardens around us. Except in our garden that is. The snowdrop bulbs I planted in tubs have plenty of leaves but no flowers, not even a stalk! I’ve subsequently read that snowdrops can take a couple of years to settle so perhaps that’s the problem. Personally I’m inclined to think it’s me. Do you think it’s possible that I give off a pheromone that puts off both garden birds and snowdrop bulbs?!
