Crime spree three - now it's snowdrops.

Galanthus Woronowii Elizabeth Harrison

The saga of garden crime horror stories continues.  News is starting to come in regarding a new spate of thefts from both public and private gardens. This time, it is the snowdrop that is the center of attention, as growers and enthusiasts wake up to find their treasured clumps have been stolen overnight.

At this time of year, snowdrops herald the first signs of spring, and have a peculiar place in our national nostalgia.  Snowdrop collecting has been booming over the last few years, and with that boom comes an increase in the price of the rarest specimens.  The most expensive snowdrop is apparently Galanthus Elizabeth Harrison, a single bulb of which sold in February last year at £725.  Yes, that's right, seven-hundred-and-twenty-five pounds; I have not slipped a decimal point.  It was purchased by Thompson and Morgan in Ipswich, for breeding purposes, and is rather special owing to the distinctive yellow ovary and petal markings - but at £725, it would have to be unusual to say the least!  At last year's Spring flower fair at the RHS Horticultural Halls in London, Jilly and I balked at paying £8 for a single bulb of one particular variety.  The idea of paying nearly one hundred times that makes me feel faint, and I'm going to have to go away for a lie down...

... and now I'm back, but still feeling amazed and frankly rather hard done by.  I never knew there was so much money to be made in gardening.  Back to the topic, however, and it seems that the thefts are becoming serious enough that gardens such as the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens near Romsey in Hampshire no longer label their varieties as this encourages night-time raids on the clumps.  In their Winter Garden, a beautiful carpet of snowdrops at this time of year, only two of the many varieties have a label attached, as a matter of policy.  The head gardener, Fran Clifton, tells the story of how she planted out two pots of Galanthus Blewberry Tart (a rare variety costing £25 per bulb) back in 2008, and both clumps promptly went missing.  She says that the problem has become noticeably worse in 2011 and 2012, with the garden now planting snowdrops in subterranean cages so that you cannot just dig them up.  Very rare varieties have been dug up, planted in pots, and are now housed in locked greenhouses - they can be seen only in a two week special exhibition, after which they are returned to the safety of a lock and key.

Galanthus Nivalis at Coton Manor

The problem doesn't just affect the large public gardens.  Steve Owen maintains the National Collection of snowdrops in his back garden in Bedfordshire, amassing more than 900 varieties.  This year, only his family and friends will see the display as he has found that thefts increased dramatically when he opened his gardens to public viewing for the first time in 2012.  He has noticed that visitors bring cameras, and that some then marked the positions of desirable clumps so that they could later be stolen during the night.  He lost a variety named Galanthus E. A. Bowles, only discovered in 2004, a theft that he says cost about £900, and has now started to fit CCTV and anti-theft lights.  It is clear, he says, that plants are being stolen by highly knowledgeable thieves, who are targeting varieties not normally available for sale.

Apparently, gardening forums on the internet are now beginning to show an increase in the number of ordinary householders who are waking up to find clumps of snowdrops missing, as the mania for snowdrops has increased over the last few years and some people are not prepared to wait for their own plantings to fill out.  Bulbs are also disappearing from parks and roadside verges.

Which all makes me rather relieved that the snowdrops that I have just purchased for my own garden cost no more than £2.95 for a small clump in a pot, from Knights, and that was before the three-for-two discount.