Continuing our series on plants for particular places, Roy Lancaster says some plants really do like it cold. Praise be for these early hints of spring.If you have ever seen the unfolding spidery flowers of a witch hazel (hamamelis) covered with rime on a chilly late winter morning, you may well, like me, have marvelled at the ability of these seemingly delicate creations to survive adversity. It's thesame with early flowering bulbous plants like snowdrops, which regularly as clockwork push their way through the cold ground to flower when all around is under snow or else in die grip of a frost. Yet they always do, and it will not surprise you to hearthat for the past four years. I have been gradually adding to my collection of these little harbingers of spring Little is the word, for there are several relatively small snowdrops such as the appropriately named Galanthus 'Mighty Atom', with a big flower to atone for its small stature G nivalis 'Tiny Tim" is another little charmer flowering later than 'Mighty Atom', and like that variety, is best planted close to the house in a bed or border where you can nip out on a cold day to take a peep.
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