The Great Snowdrop Garden Trail of Somerset

The annual Festival has become increasingly popular, drawing visitors from far and wide including tours of snowdrop lovers from overseas. Tour organisers and individual visitors to the Festival often ask about the best places to see snowdrops; the new Great Snowdrop Gardens Trail of Somerset will take people to some of the finest and most interesting snowdrop gardens in the county including Hestercombe.

Whether you’re a galanthophile, a gardener, a plant collector, or someone who loves beautiful things there will be something at the Festival for you.

Festival Dates 20^th and 21^st February 2026

The Snowdrop King

James Allen was born just outside Shepton Mallet in 1830 and lived all of his life here. Although he worked from an early age in the family business he was passionate about snowdrops. In the late C19th he was one of Britain’s most well regarded breeders and probably the very first person to deliberately cross and raise different snowdrop hybrids from seed. James Allen is credited with breeding at least 100 snowdrop varieties. Sadly only two of them, Magnet and Merlin, survive today but his legacy and his title of Snowdrop King still live on.

The Snowdrop Project celebrates his legacy, the history and heritage of Shepton Mallet and the beauty of the snowdrop. Each year Shepton Snowdrops plant thousands of bulbs on roadsides, roundabouts and public spaces with the aim of blanketing the town white with snowdrops! In February they hold a Snowdrop Festival, with specialist plant sales, workshops, art and craft, and poetry and photography competitions.