Snowdrops, or Fair Maids of February as they are called in some parts, are an early harbinger of spring.

But they are as much a winter flower as an early spring flower, coming into flower at a time when winter is often at its coldest.

The 18th Century poet, Thomas Tickell referred to snowdrops growing in Kensington Gardens as ‘winter snow’.

We look on snowdrops as a wild flower, and yet most colonies probably began as garden escapes.

Isle of Wight County Press: Snowdrops.

Beautiful snowdrops.

Although grown in gardens for centuries, snowdrops were not recorded as growing wild in Britain until the 1770s although they are undoubtedly native across the channel in Brittany.

The Victorian botanist Dr. Bromfield, who wrote the first comprehensive flora of the IW published in 1856, said that they could be found on banks amongst brushwood, in thickets and hedges in close lanes, apparently wild.

He said that they were found in great profusion on the steep bushy sides of Snowdrop Lane at Gatcombe, a place where they still survive in diminished numbers today.

The Christian festival of Candelmas, held each year on February 2, commemorates the ritual purification of Mary, 40 days after the birth of her son, Jesus Christ.

In pre-Christian times, it was the festival of light, marking the mid-point of winter.

The pure white blooms of snowdrops have long been accepted as a symbol of purity and bunches were brought into churches and scattered on altars.

Indeed, snowdrops are often found associated with churches and monastic foundations.

Today, one of the most popular locations for admiring them locally is in Newchurch churchyard.

The flowers and leaf shape of snowdrops can be variable in subtle ways, such as the extent of green markings on the petals.

Several species of snowdrop are grown in gardens today and they can hybridise giving rise to different offspring.

There is an increasing band of enthusiasts who take great delight in collecting different forms of snowdrops and the term galanthophiles (after the Latin name Galanthus for snowdrop) was first used in 1892 to describe these enthusiasts.

Very rare varieties can exchange hands for several hundred pounds for one bulb!