Snowdrop Propagation

We found the first snowdrops of the year on January 25th along a path close to Dunrobin Castle, after which they disappeared under the recent snow to....

....re-emerge, as if nothing untoward had happened, around 11th February when this picture was taken. Since then, and despite more snow and temperatures as low as -8C, we've been finding them in cheerful clumps all over the place but almost exclusively close to dwellings.

Snowdrops are a non-native species so have been introduced to this area. The usual method of propagating them is to divide the bulbs so....

....how does one explain these ones - just visible at bottom left - which we found today on our first walk for some time up the lane towards Golspie Tower? They are several hundred yards from the nearest dwelling suggesting that, unless some passing motorist threw a snowdrop bulb out of the car window, they were propagated in another way.

The beginnings of an answer came from these snowdrops - again at bottom left - seen today growing close to one of the paths through Golspie Glen, where we were suddenly aware that....

.... several bees were working at them. That bees are out in mid-February is explained by the warm weather which has followed the snow, and by the location, a nearby house having half-a-dozen hives in the garden.

A quick bit of research reveals that snowdrops can be pollinated and then produce pods of seeds which can be harvested and planted.  That pollination is going on is proved by the pollen on the bee's legs. If the seeds are food for some of our local bird species, this might explain the snowdrops along the Golspie Tower lane.