The Snowdrops are out – Spring is on its way!
It’s always so heartening when you start to see snowdrops peaking through the undergrowth whilst out on a walk. With that in mind if you’d like to take a stroll amongst the snowdrops to lift your spirits here are some stunning locations around our area.
- Waterperry Gardens (near Wheatley): Famous for its Snowdrop Weekend in February, showcasing over 60 varieties and a riverside walk.
- Welford Park (near Newbury): Known as one of the best in the UK, with 5 acres of beech woods filled with snowdrops, open Wed-Sun, Jan 28 to March 1, 2026.
- Kingston Bagpuize House (near Abingdon): A private estate opening in February with stunning, snowdrop-filled woodlands. Opening Days: Every Sunday and Wednesday in February (1st, 4th, 8th, 11th, 15th, 18th, 22nd, 25th).
- St Botolph’s Church (Swyncombe, near Henley-on-Thames RG9 6EA): Offers a peaceful, charming, and free, scenic walk, often with “snowdrop teas” available.
- Basildon Park (National Trust, near Goring): Features lovely, accessible woodland trails blanketed in white.
- Thenford Gardens and Arboretum (near Banbury): Boasts over 600 species of snowdrops, creating a spectacular, diverse display.
- Evenley Wood Garden (near Banbury): Boasts over 80 named snowdrop varieties in a woodland setting.
- Badbury Hill (National Trust, near Faringdon): Known for bluebells later but offers nice early-season snowdrop walks.
- Colesbourne Park (near Cheltenham): Renowned for over 350 varieties, with open days every weekend from late January to February 23, 2026.
- Newark Park (Gloucestershire Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge GL12 7PZ): A National Trust property featuring snowdrop-filled woodlands.
- Boddington Manor (The Manor Boddington Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL51 0TJ): Features an annual snowdrop trail in the woods. Sunday 9 February 2025, 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm. £5 admission, cash only.
- Painswick Rococo Gardens (near Stroud GL6 6TH). Open daily from Saturday 17 January to Sunday 1st March 2026. While there are only 15 named varieties, the garden is famous for its massive, naturalised display of over 5 million individual snowdrops.
Also, the days are starting to get a little bit longer, this is especially noticeable if we’ve had a sunny day (although they seem few and far between at the moment!). So, on days when it is sunny, it’s a chance to wrap up warm and get out in the garden. Here’s the link to the RHS website on jobs in the garden in February.
Continuing the snowdrop theme, I subscribe to the newsletter from Bunkers Hill Plant Nursery, and this week received an offer of a FREE pot of snowdrops and an opportunity to collect the new Bunkers Bonkers Bonus Card. All I have to do is to guess how many of them there are at Painswick Rococo Gardens…the answer is in the list above…so I may have a go!!! They do have regular offers but you have to subscribe to the newsletter https://bunkershillgardenshop.co.uk/
For those of you who haven’t ventured over to Bunkers Hill, it’s a bit of a trek but worth it as they often have different plant varieties than the garden centre chains. Bunkers Hill, Kidlington OX5 3BA.
For those of you who prefer a bit of armchair gardening during January, why not take a peek at Monty Don’s Rhineland Gardens, his new gardening series on the BBC. He travels from the Alps to the North Sea on the River Rhine as it flows through big cities, dramatic landscapes and romantic valleys. Along the way Monty explores extraordinary gardens shaped by the mighty River Rhine. Well worth a watch. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002px5m/monty-dons-rhineland-gardens
Just a reminder that as a member of the Black Bourton Gardening Club you can enjoy 10% discount at some of our local gardening centres, just take your membership cards along and show them at the checkout before you pay.:
- Bampton Garden Centre (full priced plants only),
- Timms Garden Department, Brize Norton (all products in the department)
- Cassington Garden Centre (plants only).
We also now have 20% discount for purchases from Thompson & Morgan. This includes seeds, plants, bulbs, onion and potato sets and more. Products which they refer to as ‘non live’ i.e. garden pots and tools etc are not included. To benefit from our discount you can either order from their website HERE, or by post. If ordering online you will need to set yourself up when you order so that they have your address etc and can link the discount to it. When setting up and placing an order make sure you quote our unique order code which is TM_GT748P this will ensure you get the discount. If you would prefer to order by post we have some copies of their seed catalogue for 2026 and paper order forms, please just let us know and we will get them to you.
Thank you for your continued support, we look forward to seeing you all in March when we kick off the year with a coffee morning on March 14th and we have a talk on planning herbaceous borders on March 17th, please see below for our programme through to the summer.
Best wishes from your committee – Ellie, Jo, Niki and Rachel
Our Speaker Event in November will be Tuesday 18th November at 7pm in St Mary’s. Attendance at our talks is usually less than 20 people, please do come and join us, although the nights are a bit chilly and dark you will find a warm reception and hopefully enjoy an interesting evening.
We thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Village Fete again this year and are very grateful to the BBVA for inviting us to to have a stall to help generate funds for the Gardening Club. Huge thanks to everyone who supported us, whether by donating items to sell, helping with the set up on the day or coming along to buy from us. We had a very successful day and were pleased to increase our takings on last year! Here we are just before the start of the fete!
Our first Speaker of the Autumn on Tuesday 21st October at 7pm in St Mary’s will be Paul Green of Greens Leaves Nursery in Gloucestershire, who specialise in rare and unusual plants suitable for growing in the UK. Paul will talk about plants for the Autumn season, he is very knowledgeable about grasses but will also cover foliage plants and evergreens. He will bring a selection of plants from the nursery to sell so do join us and bring cash, cards or phones to make the most of this great opportunity to get something a little more unusual for your garden. The talk is free to Gardening Club Members, £5 to non members, unless signing up on the night! We are very keen to swell our numbers so ALL ARE VERY WELCOME!!
Our final evening meeting before we break for the summer will be on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm in St Mary’s. 
There is no evening meeting for the Gardening Club in June but instead we 
Our final evening meeting before we break for the summer will be on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm in St Mary’s. 
Our speaker for the evening in May will be Hazel Roberts. Hazel got the bug for growing fruit and vegetables over thirty years ago when she moved to a house that backed on to allotments. She took on two of the allotments and is still working them today. In 2002 she brought out a book entitled ‘Hazel’s Homegrown’ advising what to grow and when, and five years later she was selling jams and chutneys to the public! The book provides an all-encompassing information source for the kitchen gardener by bridging the gap between gardening and recipe books. It has everything we need to know to grow, protect, harvest, cook and preserve fruit, vegetables and herbs.
For information regarding another local plant focused event, please find below details of an event at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Broadwell.
April Gardening Club Evening Meeting