Snowdrop Week:Jedward's Eurovision song Lipstick is a long, long way from Dana's sweet ballad about snowdrops and daffodils – but this time of the year is when those flowers start coming into their own.
The biggest display of snowdrops is in Altamont Gardens, Tullow, Co Carlow, and the vast show of these delicately nodding flowers has become such an attraction that the gardens have named this week Snowdrop Week.
There are 40 different varieties of Galanthus (snowdrops) though only real experts are able to tell some of them apart. The arrival of the snowdrop has traditionally been seen as the herald of spring – a hopeful sign after the grim winter months.
Gardens are open 9am-4pm with free guided tours at 2pm. See heritageireland.ie.
Today, in the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, a children’s art workshop will examine the bulb as the first green shoots from daffodils are starting to appear.
After drawing bulbs and learning how they grow, the children will construct a clay bulb to take home. From 2pm-4pm at the visitors’ centre.
Later this month and into March, the far end of the gardens is a carpet of daffodils – always worth a visit.