Snowdrop Study Day
We are delighted to announce that our snowdrop study day will take place on 13th February 2024. Please contact us to book a place as soon as possible as numbers are strictly limited!
Read our Blog
Welcome to our blog page in which we will pass on the comings and goings of the garden and keep you up to date with any changes during the season. As a snowdrop garden open for one month a year, we might go quiet during the summer months, but we are still here! In fact the work starts in earnest the day after we close the gates for the season in order to prepare for the grand opening eleven months later. We post photos and blogs on both Instagram and Facebook during the season and beyond so please do subscribe.
Occasionally, adverse weather conditions will disrupt our opening plans at the last minute and we will post to here as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter if we are affected. Please look here the evening before if you are planning to visit.
The arboretum will open in the autumn for walks amongst our fine collection of trees so please come and take a stroll around the gardens and lake as the colours change. Details will be posted on here in the late summer.
News and Blog
Arboretum Tours Friday 6th to Sunday 8th October
The arboretum at Colesbourne has a magnificent collection of over 200 trees from around the world, collected by HJ Elwes FRS and added to over the past 50 years by Sir Henry Elwes. The parkland will be open from 12.00pm and Sir Henry and head gardener Katie Reynolds will lead hourly guided tours each afternoon.
Many of the trees in the collection are recognised as the largest of their size in the United Kingdom (Champion Trees) and one oriental plane has been registered as one of the 70 UK trees to celebrate the late Queens Jubilee.
End of the Season
Colesbourne Gardens is now closed for the season! We would like to thank all our visitors this year ….and the weather for allowing the gardens to be accessible throughout the month. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and look forward to next year. Now the work starts in earnest, clearing ground and preparing where we will plant next year. Please keep watching this page for updates through the year and for other opening times of the arboretum in late summer. Don’t forget,
Carolyn Elwes
It is with great sadness that we have to report that Carolyn passed away on 23rd December 2022 after suffering a stroke. She was the lifeblood running through the snowdrops at Colesbourne Gardens and her loss will be very keenly felt by all who knew her. Generous, kind, thoughtful, artistic and knowledgeable are but a few of the adjectives we have heard over the past week, but these do not yet cover the superlatives that she gave us. Instrumental in the formation of the collection here,
New Video
We have just posted a video of the snowdrop collection on the Snowdrops page. Created by Shot From The Hip, it gives a small window into the gardens at Colesbourne and the wonderful array of snowdrops we have.
Dates for 2023
We are pleased to publish our dates for the 2023 season, starting on Saturday 28th January and closing on the 26th February. The gardens are open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays only, and gates open from 1.00pm. There is no need to pre-book and we accept cash, credit and debit cards for payment on the gate. We look forward to welcoming you to our beautiful snowdrop collection!
New member of the team!
We would like to extend a warm welcome to Katie Reynolds, who has joined our team for the coming season. Katie brings with her great experience in garden design and spring flowers and will be a new force in the future of the collection as we look at opening up hidden areas of the garden for display. She will be on hand in the garden during open days.
The last hurrah!
The season for snowdrops at Colesbourne Gardens is almost over. As the spring kicks forward and the myriad other flowers push on in the (approaching!) warmth, our beautiful snowdrops will, like a firework display, have one last hurrah before returning to the soil for another year. We have this last weekend coming to catch them before we start the preparation for 2023 and after all the weather we have had in the last few days, our fingers are crossed that the jet stream controlling our weather patterns will be kind to us.
Almost there!
Tomorrow we open the gardens, restriction free, for the first time in 2022! Visitors do not need to pre-book, just turn up any time between 1.00pm and 4.30pm on any Saturday or Sunday between now and the end of February to see the wonderful variety of snowdrops at Colesbourne. The season is a little late this year – frosty weather in the early winter tends to act as a jump start for the bulbs to do their thing and with temperatures in December in the low teens,
Study Day
Happy New year to all Galanthophiles worldwide! The snowdrop season is almost upon us and in three weeks from now the gardens will throw open their doors to all visitors, fingers crossed. We have added a study day to our calendar – details are below:
Snowdrop Study Day
Meet other enthusiasts, learn more about snowdrops and their companion plants in the winter garden from experts and enjoy a private viewing of the
Colesbourne snowdrop collection.