Wednesday, February 25, 2015

spring hellebores

Well, not quite spring, but it feels and sounds like it (the wind is quite gusty today!). Nope I'm not sick of hellebores yet. Not when there is nothing else in the garden that's blooming.

 H. niger Nell Lewis has surprised me with flowers that appeared last week. I wasn't expecting anything, although I was checking this plant periodically. Suddenly there they were. Much, much later than H. niger Jacob and Joseph, and with nodding rather than outfacing blooms. Not the typical H. niger "Christmas Rose" blooming time. 

 H. x orientalis 'Connie' has opened, but you have to lift the hanging flowers to see them. They are supposed to be outfacing. The hellebore hybrids (x orientalis) are typically late winter/early spring bloomers rather than the midwinter H. niger.

 But this is how they appear in the garden from human height. So mostly appearing white in the garden.

 The "Select White" from Pine Knot is far from white.

 This is the spotted white double that I showed in a previous post, but in the garden it looks like this.

 So it is questionable whether or not it is worth having double flowers when they hang and only the backs are visible. But nice if you cut them and float them in a bowl.

 I can't bear to do that though, so my garden display is more like this. I lift them to look at their faces when I visit them.

 'Champion' has faded to green, although still keeping its form.

 'Jacob' has long faded to green and with growing seed pods.

'Joseph Lemper' almost all faded to green. One late flower still almost white.


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