Margot Navarre is sharing her earliest blooms with us today. She gardens in Bellevue, Washington, and we’ve visited her garden before; check out Summer in Margot’s Garden if you want to see what it looks like in the height of summer. But right now, Margot is celebrating a favorite group of plants: snowdrops.

Drifts of snowdrops in full bloom, so cheerful and tough, mark the end of each winter. To the right, ‘Chief Joseph’ lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’, Zones 5–8) provides bright yellow needles to add to the snowdrop display. The pine holds this bright color through the winter, then shifts to green through the summer months.

Galanthus ‘Primrose Warburg’ (Zones 3–8) has a long-lasting bloom time but hasn’t been prolific in our garden. On this variety, the green ovary and markings on the petals have shifted to yellow, giving extra color and beauty.

The snowdrop variety ‘Wasp’ is a hybrid discovered by Veronica Cross at Sutton Court in Herefordshire in 1995. A vigorous grower with long white petals, it stands out in the garden.

Galanthus nivalis ‘Viridspice’ (Zones 3–8) shows off nicely in a simple vase.

We designed and added a dry-stacked retaining wall to make more room for plants and extra special snowdrops. This is a picture from September.

And here’s the new bed in January. We planted a dwarf camellia, daphnes, primroses, cyclamen, ferns, a full-moon maple, and bulbs. We will continue to add speciality snowdrops to the new garden space.

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