Celebrate the promise of spring at the annual Scottish Snowdrop Festival, held February 4, 2012, through March 18, 2012.

Arranged by VisitScotland, the festival includes more than 50 garden showcasing their snowdrop spots, some of which are open exclusively for the event.

Properties taking part in the festival range from castles and classic country estates to woodland walks, walled gardens and urban retreats. There is also magical Snowdrops by Starlight night time experience.

Everything from a footpath sprinkled with snowdrops by a waterfall which inspired Robert Burns in Perthshire, to carpets of snowdrops at Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire can be enjoyed. During a visit you can also tour castles and stately homes, visit deer parks and tea rooms or see specialist varieties of snowdrop like those at the Shepard House Snowdrop Theatre in East Lothian.

One of the gardens taking part is Cambo Estate, Fife, which has 70 acres of woodland carpeted in snowdrops each year — and, it’s home to the National Collection of 300 species of snowdrop.

As Road Trips Gardeners already know, of course, dates published for snowdrop openings are ‘general’ as unfortunately snowdrops do not flower to order and their flowering can be dependent on which part of the country they are growing in and indeed the variations in our climate. As a general rule, they are two weeks earlier in the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway than in the east of Scotland, and those growing further north and/or on higher ground can be later still.

(Photo courtesy of VisitScotland)