It takes a real expert to tell snowdrops apart, Nick Haworth confesses. ‘It must admit, I do find it challenging,’ says the head gardener at The Garden House, where the annual Snowdrop Festival is now underway.

The festival runs until March 12, giving snowdrop enthusiasts plenty of time to discover the 350 varieties which nestle and peek out among foliage in the borders of the garden near Buckland Monachorum.

And among highlights is a visit from former head gardener Matt Bishop, a galanthophile – snowdrop expert – who built up the collection and now runs his own nursery. Matt will be visiting on Friday, February 10 to talk about snowdrop breeding plans for the future.

As Nick explains, the collection varies from the common S. Arnott – at £1 a bulb – to the rare, where the price tag runs into silly money. ‘With the most rare, we are looking at the best part of £100 for a single bulb,’ he says. ‘I can’t tell you the names of them because that makes it too tempting for people. Bulbs do get dug up. The average person would look at them and say, they are not worth that kind of money!

He adds: ‘I have occasionally paid £50 a bulb because I have been donated money to buy something. Then I have chosen something you would definitely recognise as a variety and can tell apart from almost everything else.’

Because snowdrops flower at different times, the garden merits several visits, even if you are not a dab hand at identification. There are labels, and plenty of knowledgable volunteers to help identify them. Without the obvious signifier of colour, snowdrops show differences more subtly in variations in splashes of green on their petals or shape.

Some hide their flourishes under their nodding heads. This is the case with one of Nick’s favourites, a good-dooer called Godfrey Owen, which clumps up easily and hides delicately striped petals overlaid on top of each other.

He shows me some close to the front door. ‘As a gardener who has to put on a display, I rate these because they are much easier to grow. And because they make a display, don’t they?’ he says.

He is planning carpets of naturalised S. Arnott through the lawns, for those who appreciate the snowdrops for their delicate beauty rather than rarity value. The festival runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until March 12 between 10.30am and 3.30pm. This Saturday, January 21, there will be a talk by snowdrop specialist Dr Julian Sutton on ‘The Origins of Diversity in Cultivated Snowdrops’.