THE 15th annual Snowdrop-lovers event 'Galanthus Gala' will entertain audiences with a number of interesting lectures on Saturday, February 11 at Kelly College, Tavistock.

Lecture topics are set to be thought-provoking with talks by Rannveig Wallis on 'Wildlings and Some Garden Surprises', covering some of the lesser-known species in the wild and interesting seedlings she has found in her garden, Dr Joze Bavcon on 'Slovenian Snowdrops', covering all aspects of snowdrops in Slovenia and the many amazing forms discovered there, and Dr Dowling Munro on 'All That Glitters . . .', covering the many new forms of yellow snowdrops discovered in the last ten years.

The lectures will be followed by the popular plant sale which has become one of the best places to buy rare and unusual snowdrops. Nurseries include those from the UK and the continent and private collectors who are selling surplus stock, and varieties not available anywhere else.

There will be many other spring-flowering plants for sale, such as, hellebores, corydalis, pulmonarias and celandines. This will be followed by a lunch at the school.

There will be a display of memorabilia and specimen snowdrops in pots and transcripts of previous Galanthus Galas will also be available for sale.

In the afternoon there will be a visit to the Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, which is home to the snowdrop collection of Matt Bishop, co-author of the classic work 'Snowdrops'.

The garden, created by Lionel Fortescue, and extensively adapted by Keith Wiley, is now being gradually revamped and extended to create one of the best gardens in the West Country.

For more information, contact Joe Sharman on 01954 251555 or email [email protected]">[email protected]