St Valentine and snowdrops

Why are red roses the most popular flower to be gifted on St. Valentine's Day?

In Britain we are in mid-winter, the soil is sleeping and roses have a long way to travel before reaching our doorsteps. 




The skull that might be of St. Valentine lives in a reliquary in a basilica in Rome


          Snowdrops at Lowther Castle Gardens this week


On this day, 14th February 2022, in Cumbria the first snowdrops are coming into flower, their tiny buds peep above the sodden earth, as if asking "is safe to emerge?"

The white bell shaped flowers, with smooth dull, green narrow leaves, are the first sign that spring is on the way.   So why not give snowdrops instead of roses?

People ask St. Valentine to watch over the lives of lovers but he is also responsible for beekeeping, epilepsy, the plague, fainting and travelling.

Snowdrops have medicinal uses.    The plant has been used for treatment of traumatic injuries to the nervous system for hundreds of years.    

Extract of snowdrop was noted by the ancient Greeks for its powerful mind-altering effects.   The snowdrop bulb contains the alkaloid galantamine and is approved for the use of the management of Alzheimer's disease in over 70 countries worldwide including the UK.

Historically the first evidence of the properties of galantamine come from Homer's Odyssey where Odysseus is described as using the snowdrops to clear the mind of Circe's bewitchment "the root was black, while the whole flower was as white as milk".

The scientific name for snowdrops is Galanthus - it means milk flower.   Collectors of snowdrops are known as Galanthophiles.

Surely St. Valentine would approve if lovers gave one another snowdrops on his day?

Although St. Valentine is responsible for beekeepers snowdrops do not rely on pollinators to reproduce but will regularly be visited by bees and other insects on a warm day.

The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer often took liberties with history, placing poetic characters into a fictitious historical context that he represented as real.   No record exits of romantic celebrations on St. Valentine's Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375.

Every day the bud of the snowdrop gets bigger and bigger until finally the flower emerges. 

Snowdrops create optimism, flowering in defiance against the rudiments of life.    Snowdrops are the harbinger of spring.  A time to begin again.

So why not give snowdrops on St. Valentine's day instead of roses?


Galanthus elwessii var monostictus cinderdine 






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