Friday Foraging #66 - 24th Jan 2025

Snowdrops

This week in the Herb Weavers Journal we talked about snowdrops and how they are such delicate looking but hardly little flowers.

I’m not in the habit of using Snowdrops in my herbalists cabinet, for no other reason than I feel very guilty taking one of the most hardy plants and removing its head. I love the feeling of Imbolc’s arrival and the Snowdrop gives me that feeling, so I prefer to leave it be.

For those of you who want to forage it, it really is a very obvious flower, based on the fact, nothing much else is around that early and it has a straight thin stem with a lovely pure white hanging head. They grow in clumps, so again it makes them easier to spot.

Unlike the Bluebell, Snowdrops are not a protected species and you can therefore dig them up and plant them else where, but my question to you is “Why would you want to?” A packet of snowdrop seeds are only a couple of £3’s, so grow your own, nurture them from birth to death and fill them with love and magic as you do. The clump if untouched will grow bigger each year, so even if you forage a few of them, you will always have snowdrops warning you of the impending Spring.

Don’t forget that if the flowers are on private property, you need the landowners permission to dig up the entire plant and that goes for council land too.

Snowdrops can be found all over the UK, but they especially love shaded woodland, parks, gardens, and along riverbanks as they prefer damp soil. They usually flower from January to March, but when the weather is mild, you can sometimes see them as early as October.

Remember that anytime you forage, never take more than you need, you aren’t the only forager where you live and the animals need some to.