Snowdrop paradise: a collector's dream

A collection such as this alerts you to the diversity of snowdrops tall, short, slender, fat, single, double, glaucous or green-leaved and of their myriad markings, as well as how long a flowering season they have. G. reginae-olgae is out in the autumn, G. elwesii Hiemalis Group at Christmas, 'Atkinsii in January and 'Straffan right at the end of February, he says. Since Sales likes to have his garden full of interest at all times of year, he relishes this contribution.

Now, at their midseason climax, the snowdrops are accompanied by a lemon yellow witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida) in full flush, and pools of pink Cyclamen coum, growing in small circular beds around the trees in the lawn. In one of these beds, the cyclamen share ground with crocus, white bluebells, self-seeding love-in-a-mist (Nigella), and Cyclamen neapolitanum, giving an all-year flower display entirely on its own.

Elsewhere, Sales has his snowdrops under shrub roses and tree peonies, between summer perennials and pushing through wild strawberry and other ground cover all crisply presented against a thin mulch of dark home-made compost.

I wondered which of the many varieties he would especially recommend. If you were going for only one snowdrop, it would have to be 'S. Arnott a group gives you a lovely honey scent in the air. 'Atkinsii and 'Magnet are old favourites. 'Galatea I love, 'Ailwyn is the best double, and 'Armine is a good late one. He also shows me 'Lyn, named after his wife and found by her in a nearby wood. Tall like a very early-flowering Atkinsii and quick to colonise, it looks terrific. With other snowdrops he has introduced, his naming has been more playful: 'January Sales and 'Compu.Ted (named after his grandson Ted, a computer buff).

Snowdrop 'Lyn' named after John's wife (Heathcliff O'Malley)

Sales is still involved in the management of historic gardens as a consultant for private estates such as Chatsworth. But when not busy with this, or entertaining his grandchildren, retirement has allowed him time to develop his garden into a plantsmans paradise. The maintenance is immaculate, including in the two covered glasshouses, which sport a 'Cornish Snow camellia and pots of South African bulbs, including a fat clump of pink, poker-like Veltheimia bracteata this last plant producing a spectacle that I am going to try to emulate in my own frost-free porch next winter.

A life in gardens

John Sales joined the National Trust in the early Seventies as an assistant to Graham Stuart Thomas (1909-2003), one of the countrys greatest plantsmen and garden writers. Sales has just finished writing his memoirs, so I asked him about his days with the Trust.

In those days, the Trust was run by aesthetes. It had very low membership and visitor numbers, and yet they would still take on properties such as West Wycombe Park with an endowment of just 5,000, says Sales. With inflation, that was hopeless. At that time, most gardens were viewed by many in the Trust rather as a stage-set for the house instead of having an intrinsic worth.

Since they had to be run on a tight budget and there was little opportunity to do much research into them, making them presentable was the main thing. But there was some great talent among the head gardeners men such as Mike Snowden at Erddig and Jimmy Hancock at Powis Castle. With gardeners such as Pamela Schwerdt and Sibylle Kreutzberger at Sissinghurst, who had each other to bounce ideas off, the visits with Graham and myself were more like conversations, but elsewhere we could be mentors to the head gardeners and help address weaknesses organising for them to go on a particular course or work in another garden to help raise standards. Such interactions are vital: people are not born good gardeners, they are made good gardeners through contact with experts.

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Snowdrop paradise: a collector's dream