Snowdrop

Quietly elegant flowers dressed in simple white and green, snowdrops look too fragile to cope with wintry weather. They are, however, very resilient and are treasured by gardeners for their ability to flower early in the horticultural year.

In Snowdrop, Gail Harland explores how they have been used by non-gardeners too, as symbols of purity and of hope and consolation. In Victorian Britain, snowdrop bands encouraged chastity among young women; today, snowdrops are used as the symbols of several charities.

Snowdrops are commonly found in flower paintings from the sixteenth century onwards and frequently appear in poetry and prose. Medicinally, they are a source of galanthamine, used in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

The gentle beauty of the snowdrop may have attracted the attention of poets and artists for centuries, but today snowdrops are more popular than ever before, with record-breaking sums being reached for individual bulbs. Snowdrop is the ideal companion for galanthophiles, or indeed any plant lovers who are interested in the emotional and cultural aspects of these much-loved plants.