By Josie Wall JQDT/bids
‘Snowdrops are one of the first signs of hope that Spring is around the corner and are an important source of nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinators when other food is hard to find, so we want lots of them in the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries.
We ordered 500 Snowdrops ‘in the green’ for planting in February, but they arrived a little bit early! Thanks to an urgent appeal on social media, we found lots of willing volunteers to help us, including local residents, members of the Jewellery Quarter Heritage Squad and an army of Key Worker kids from Jewellery Quarter Academy who came down with their teachers.
Despite some delays due to inconveniently timed snow and all the Covid safety measures for socially distanced volunteering, everyone who came said that it was really nice to be outside doing something positive. One of the children said, “This is really relaxing, can we do it again next week?” which is high praise indeed! With all their help we have got 250 new plants in Key Hill Cemetery and 250 in Warstone Lane Cemetery, and if you visit now, they are already blooming but you will have to look carefully to spot these delicate white flowers.
Snowdrops are perennials and grow into a cluster with lots of ‘daughter’ plants from the original bulb so next year, and every year after that, we’ll have an even more impressive display to remind us that warm sunny days are coming soon!’
The Snowdrop Story:
By Marie Haddleton
At the last bitter battle of the Crimean War, survivors discovered small white flowers growing amongst the blood and gore – gathering some of these up, they brought back lots of the bulbs to the UK where they had never been grown previously and these soon became a firm favourite with gardeners.
We have our own Crimean Memorial Gardens at Summerhill Crescent, where two canons once stood.
