THE celebration of the first snowdrops of spring ("Flower power: A celebration of the first snowdrops of spring", The Herald, January 24), are not confined of course to Scotland’s finest gardens, woodlands, and estates, but are welcomed also in our humble gardens, as cheery wee predictable survivors.

My own cherished colony originated from a single clump given to me by an old lady more than 50 years ago, and their appearance brings back happy memories.

I recall a weekend Herald article some years ago which described the appearance of snowdrops buried deeply by an accidental amount of soil which had propagated annually with new bulbs and eventually reached the surface some years later.

A masterpiece of nature and survival.

R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.