Last year I fell prey to the charms of Galanthus Madeline,

Then it happened again, I saw what I would call an expensive snowdrop though I know to real collectors it was a mere spit in the wind: I fell for the delightful, the delicate 'Wasp'.



The snowdrop garden visits continued and before I knew it a couple more lower end of the scale purchases have been made, from Thenford the rather delicate


Suddenly though I feel a responsibility to these snowdrops. I feel I have to take more care of them as, well, they cost me money I could have spent on something else. I have been told they will not thrive in pots for many years so moving them on after a while is a good thing to do. Snowdrops have spirits of the wild, they want to be free with their roots in the ground. A decision formed in my mind, in order to really make sure they survive they need planting out into the garden. I also knew that if I just planted them out willy-nilly (a technical term) I would forget who was who and they would become anonymous in the garden. I spent too much to allow anonymity.
This is where I confess to buying plastic labels, yes they are plastic, I need them to last a long time. I do not routinely use plastic labels, when sowing I use wooden lolly sticks, I bought 1000 a couple of years ago and I am still working my way through them. So I only bought a few as I have no intention of spreading plastic around the garden. I also bought some weather permanent marker pens.



Will the sting in the tail be no Wasp and no other precious ones next year? I hope not. I do know that they have given me an earworm though....
Its always good to end on a song.