One of the best loved of early British spring flowers the snowdrop is not an indigenous plant at all, but a native of Switzerland, Austria and southern Europe. Also known as Fair Maid of February and Candlemas bell, the delicate snowdrop has long been associated with religious purity and innocence. In spite of this it is, in fact, an extraordinarily hardy little plant, with the ability to flower in conditions of extreme cold, including frost and snow.

Snowdrops spread rapidly and prefer shady fields, woods and orchards. Each bulb sends up only one flowered stem. The thin leaves enclosing the flower head are thickened and toughened at the tip to allow them to push up through cold, hard earth – you can see this sharpened tip quite clearly if you look closely at a mature leaf.

Snowdrops do not feature much in folk medicine. The famous herbalist, Gerard, was rather dismissive of the flower, saying it had no healing properties at all, although a 1465 herbal recommended it to aid digestion. Its first recorded appearance as a garden plant, rather than a wild flower, was in 1664 and it is still, today, considered to be a cultivated plant.

Sweet-faced Snowdrop Fairy stands in the snow in her snowdrop dress, her thoughtful pose echoing the Christian associations of this lovely spring flower.