The Galanthophiles

THE GALANTHOPHILES is the first book to focus on the lives of snowdrop devotees during the years 1854 to 2014 when snowdrops came of horticultural age. It tells the stories of the most important individuals whose fascination with every aspect of the genus Galanthus ensured the survival of so many of the snowdrops we grow today. The stories are interwoven with accounts of the introduction of new snowdrop species and new snowdrop variants and provide a history of Galanthus cultivation in Britain.

Author Biography

Jane Kilpatrick is a historian whose previous books, Gifts from the Gardens of China (2007) and Fathers of Botany (2014), tell the stories of the individuals who worked so hard from 1700 to 1914 to introduce Chinese plants to our parks and gardens. Her garden in Gloucestershire is full of Chinese plants but, once it began to fill up with snowdrops, she became fascinated by the stories of galanthophiles and began researching their lives.

Jennifer Harmer is the Historian of the Hardy Plant Society and a founder member of Hampshire Plant Heritage. She has always been interested in the lives of `ordinary’ gardeners whose knowledge and plant selection skills have done so much to increase the range of plants available to us today. When she discovered how quickly even the best known gardeners are forgotten, she began to collect information and photographs for her lectures. She gardens in Hampshire and is pleased with how well snowdrops cope with her clay soil.