• Home
  • About Us
    • The House
    • The Gardens
    • Family Tree
    • The Old Kitchen Tea Room
  • Visit Us
    • Opening Times & Prices
    • Group Visits
    • Location
    • Visitor Information
  • What’s On
  • Venue Hire
    • Event Hire
    • Weddings
    • Recommended Suppliers
  • The Estate
    • About the Estate
    • Agriculture
    • Development
    • Forestry & Sustainable Energy
    • Recruitment
    • Residential Property & Land
  • Development
    • Tresham Village
    • Tresham Village | Planning
    • Tresham Village | The History
    • Tresham Village | Woodland Creation Project
    • Tresham Village | Development Blog
  • Shooting
  • News | Blog
  • Contact
Deene Park Deene Park Deene Park Deene Park
  • Home
  • About Us
    • The House
    • The Gardens
    • Family Tree
    • The Old Kitchen Tea Room
  • Visit Us
    • Opening Times & Prices
    • Group Visits
    • Location
    • Visitor Information
  • What’s On
  • Venue Hire
    • Event Hire
    • Weddings
    • Recommended Suppliers
  • The Estate
    • About the Estate
    • Agriculture
    • Development
    • Forestry & Sustainable Energy
    • Recruitment
    • Residential Property & Land
  • Development
    • Tresham Village
    • Tresham Village | Planning
    • Tresham Village | The History
    • Tresham Village | Woodland Creation Project
    • Tresham Village | Development Blog
  • Shooting
  • News | Blog
  • Contact

Garden Blog | February 2018

Feb 21, 2018 |

February in the garden is snowdrop time and here at Deene Park the grounds are smothered by an ocean of snowdrops. With even the most modest drift of these exquisite nodding white flowers it’s easy to understand their appeal. Appearing so early in the year, they never fail to lift the spirits and remind us that spring is on its way.

Deene Park Snowdrops

Our massed display of naturalised snowdrops is complimented by an ever increasing collection of named cultivars. There are several hundred different named snowdrop cultivars, which are identified by the differences in green markings, arrangement and shape of petals; by the way in which the flowers are held; and by the size, shape and colour of foliage. Our collection comprises approximately three dozen cultivars and illustrates nicely the huge range of flower and foliage forms available. Galanthophiles, as those that are the most ardent fans of snowdrop cultivars are known, can spend many a happy hour on hands and knees admiring named cultivars, or searching naturalised snowdrops for something special or something new.

Deene Park Snowdrops

Deene Park Snowdrops

Deene Park Snowdrops

Snowdrops are very easy to grow, given the right conditions and a small clump will soon bulk up in size. Snowdrops enjoy a well-drained spot in light shade, similar to their natural woodland habitat. In the garden, they are ideally suited to planting beneath deciduous trees or shrubs, or amongst herbaceous plants in borders. Under these conditions they will receive the shade that they require throughout the summer and be able to take advantage of the open canopy in February when flowering. Snowdrops are not well suited to spending their lives in pots.

Plant snowdrops ‘in-the-green’ in March as they come to the end of flowering, but before the leaves have died down. This helps them establish quickly after they have been planted. After a couple of years, when the clump has bulked up, they can be lifted and divided to create yet more clumps, a process that when repeated over a number of years will soon see your display proliferate. Dry snowdrop bulbs planted in autumn do not establish well. It is perfectly likely that having spent time and money purchasing and planting dry snowdrop bulbs, you may not get a single live plant in spring.

On our Snowdrop Sundays we have both naturalised snowdrops and a selection of our named cultivars ‘in-the-green’ for sale, which we lift from the grounds here at Deene Park.

Snowdrops are perfectly complimented by golden winter aconites Eranthis hyemalis and crocus. They can also be combined with flowering deciduous shrubs such as wintersweet Chimonanthus praecox, with richly scented, waxy, butter yellow flowers; or Viburnum x bodnatense ‘Dawn’, smothered in sweetly scented, pale pink blossom.

Deene Park Snowdrops

It may be surprising to know that it’s not only flowering plants that are tempted out of hibernation at this time of year. On a warm and sunny day, the gardens at Deene Park hum to the sound of industrious honey bees going about their business. Yes, in February!

Planting with bees in mind is worthwhile at any time of year, including winter. A healthy population of these pollinators is so valuable for the wellbeing of our ecosystem.

There are a number of plants that are great for bees and great for brightening the garden at this time of year. Snowdrops are one of those plants, as are crocus and winter aconites. Shade-tolerant perennial Hellebores produce flowers from late winter through to spring and are loved by bees, as are our native primroses. Winter flowering honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima, is a bushy, deciduous shrub with highly fragrant, cream flowers in winter and early spring. Another great shrub for bees is the winter box Sarcococca confusa a useful and attractive small evergreen, with glossy, deep green leaves and clusters of tiny white flowers which fill the air around them with their sweet scent for weeks in winter and are followed by shiny black berries.

Deene Park Snowdrops

February can be a great month for both the gardener and the bee, with both looking forward to the jewel-like delights of the spring to come.

0
Share

Testimonials

  • I visited today 29th June as part of the Boughton House group. Absolutely bowled over by this lovely warm house, its antecedents and history. Above all it felt like a home. Very privileged to be shown the Church especially by Charlotte Brudenell. I can’t praise the family enough for managing the complex preservation issues, but most of all for preserving this magical place for us all. Special thanks for making time for us, your pride in your ancestors is well founded.

    Boughton Monuments Guides
  • I pass on our great thanks from all the folks who came from St. Michael’s and St. Mary’s, Woodkirk for a really wonderful visit.

    The weather was very kind so we were able to enjoy the lovely gardens and both guides were very informative and friendly and everybody enjoyed their lunch and endless pieces of cake!

    The house look superb and the extra displays covering 500 years of the Brudenells life at Deene Park were really informative and helpful.

    For my wife Angela and myself it brought back memories of visiting Deene Park literally ten years ago to the day to be interviewed by Edmund and Marian for the post here at East Ardsley – happy memories and also of the butler at the time who I understand has also died.

    Please do pass on our thanks to the team and all who helped make our visit very special.

    Glenn Coggins
    Vicar at St. Michael’s East Ardsley
  • May I thank you for everything you did to make our visit so enjoyable. I feel we were so lucky with the weather, and I know the members were fascinated by the tour around the House.

    Church Monuments Society - July 2015
  • We pre booked our visit and arrived for 2pm. Our guide was Andrew the Head Gardener who is to be congratulated for his depth of knowledge about the origins of the gardens. He had studied the original records of the early days of the Brudenell/Cardigan family and produced a very interesting talk and tour. His passion and vision for the garden is refreshing and has produced a wonderful collection of “Cottage Garden” plants that flourish through the seasons with the encouragement of Mrs Brudenell. The Estate now has a lovely wooden framed shop selling plants and memorabilia pertaining to Deene Park. I’d love some of his Cottage Garden seeds! Very enjoyable couple of hours and the sun shone which is a bonus. Highly recommended.

    U3A Group
    2017
  • We just want to say thank you for taking Taylor & Elena for a guided tour upstairs and all that made us feel welcome at Deene Park. We had a lovely day and hope to visit again. Nice to tour around a lovely house with the kids learning its history at the same time.

    Roy Hill
    19th June 2017
  • We had a terrific time at Deene Park.  Please pass on our thanks firstly to the owners, but also to everyone else who contributed to such a delightful afternoon.  We know it takes an awful lot of work by unseen staff, as well as those we met, in order for these events to be successful.  We were made very welcome by the lady on the gate and had a fascinating insight into Deene Park’s history by our tour guide and yourself.  The gardeners too are to be commended for the outstanding plants, inside the house and grounds. All in all, a splendid house, in a fabulous setting.  What better way to spend a summer afternoon.  We certainly hope to visit again.

    Averil & Lloyd Fairey
    August 2015
  • On behalf of ladies Probus, Boxmoor I would like to thank you and all your staff for making our visit so enjoyable. I have had so many members come back to me to say how much they enjoyed the day, some telling me that they would recommend you to other clubs they belong to.

    Doreen Biddle
    Ladies Probus Group, Boxmoor
  • We drove 65 miles to visit……. Well worth it!

    June 2015
  • Many thanks for a super afternoon. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and your Guides and catering staff were marvellous. Even the weather did its bit by staying fine most of the time.

    U3A Group
    July 2015
  • Thank you for all your help which contributed to the success of our visit to Deene Park. We all had a very good time, and were blessed with lovely weather to enjoy the garden. Please congratulate your catering team, the food was simply delicious, I chose well and thought the summer pudding one of the best I’d ever tasted!!!!

    We had a very good holiday, and, our visit to Deene at the beginning really set the tone for what was to follow, the Guides were also excellent. My thanks for all your endeavours.

    Linda Dippy
    Upper Thames & Ridgeway NT Association

Contact Us

We're currently offline. Send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Send Message
To subscribe to our newsletter, please Click Here

Contact us

  • The Administrator
  • Deene Park
  • Corby Northamptonshire NN17 3EW
  • 01780 450278
  • info@deenepark.com
  • www.deenepark.com

Telephone Numbers

House Administrator: 01780 450 278

The Estate Office: 01780 450 361

Events/Weddings: 07561 820 828

Find Us

Deene Park, Deene, Corby, Northamptonshire. NN17 3EW

Follow us

Useful Links

Opening Times & Prices

What’s On

Group Visits

Visitor Information

Contact

© 2018 | All Rights Reserved | Site designed and created by Resilient Business Systems

Prev Next
Notice This website or its third party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. If you want to know more or withdraw your consent to all or some of the cookies, please refer to the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to the use of cookies.OKRead more