Jaques d'Alltrades wrote in message ...
The message
from Sacha contains these words:

Our snowdrops are nowhere near flowering yet. Whoever planted them in this
garden must have loved them, because there are tens of thousands of them but
no *very* early ones. All seem to flower at different times and the ones
nearest to the house are only just coming through the grass.

I think they are my favourite flower.

No.

I know they are.

Oh yes, oh yes! More even than primroses, which run them close. I have
thousands here, and for me at least aspect seems to be the crucial
factor. Here, the ones in deepest shade are the ones which come
through earliest: the ones facing the sun will generally be the last
to poke through. This may seem crazy, I know; but I think it's about
freedom from frost: the ones which get most sun are also those which
are least sheltered from temperature variations.

There are, of course, plenty of natural variations and cultivars, as
well as several species; but I have no reason to believe that the ones
I have nurtured and spread about for a couple of decades aren't all
pretty much the same. I just love getting down on my knees to smell
them. Maybe I should have started a programme of selecting them for
flowering period and all that jazz; but I've always been content just
to let them rip, dividing the clumps from time to time. There is a
God, after all.

Mike.