By Geribee
Berkshire,
United Kingdom 
Some years back I inherited an established garden, including a spring bed planted with lots of snowdrops, hellebores and a number of spring flowering shrubs, all of which I've added to.
Two years back a well established Daphne 'Jaqueline Postill' in this bed died, and this year almost none of the snowdrops have appeared.
I am struggling to control an infestation of ground elder in the bed.
Could any of these occurrences be related? The soil is heavy but contains lots of organic matter having been mulched every year. The bed gets wet in the winter but can dry out in the summer as it contains a huge Liriodendron tree.
I would welcome any advice - I'm particularly upset at the non appearance of the snowdrops this year.
26 Jan, 2017
The ground elder should not have any effect on the Snowdrops. We have some patches on the roadside and they come up every year through ground elder, nettles, brambles, docks and couch grass.
Have you used weed killer on the ground elder?
Pest wise nothing really eats Snowdrops.
There is a nasty fungus/bacteria which can get into the bulbs and cause them to rot. Google Stagonospora.
Also Narcissus root fly attack Snow drops as well. But if you have them then the decline would be gradual rather than sudden.
Snow drops do like a damp soil in Summer, but our roadside ones are on top of a wall and that really does dry out.
We lost D.J Postil a few years back, but that was in the extreme cold that we had. All Daphnes are a bit prone to suddenly dying.
26 Jan, 2017