I meant to post about tomatoes today, but with the weather so warm and spring-like I headed off to my friend Barry’s garden to photograph some early spring ephemerals before they are gone.
Barry has several interesting hellebores in his woodland garden. I used to consider these plants too hoity-toity for me. In fact, I would remember their name by thinking “hell-of-a-bore.” While they are not cheap plants to buy (a little rich for my thin wallet), I’ve come around to them primarily because they arrive early when much of the garden is still asleep. Barry has one that blooms in January when absolutely nothing else is in bloom outdoors.
The variety pictured above is ‘Jade Tiger,’ a pretty green double flower with dark edges that was bred by Marietta O’Byrne at Northwest Garden Nursery. There is all kinds of variation in hellebores and the same is true for this strain — no two are alike.
I always have a hard time remembering
flower names. I won’t forget that one!
Gorgeous! Just curious what kind of camera do you use for these photos? They are so clear!
I use lots of different cameras, but I shot this photo with the Nikon D90.
Oohhh I love this one, friend of mine just bought ‘Jade Tiger’ the other weekend when we were plant shopping. There was a lot of different variations between all the ‘Jade Tiger’ plants, the nursery worker said it’s because they were propagated by seeds rather than tissue culture, which makes sense.
I would like to add a double hellebore to my collection, I’m leaning towards ‘Peppermint Ice’ right now.
Yes! ‘Jade Tiger’ can be very green or very burgundy like this one. And then everything in between. Hellebores self-seed like mad so I keep working myself up to the cost by thinking about the many seedlings I will get eventually.
Just quietly weeping here.
I have got to get me some hellebores! On another blooming note, if anyone is near Yorkville, take a walk past 20/21 Elgin St. (can’t remember the exact number). They have the most amazing display of snowdrops, I’d say 50 plants in bloom in the front yard and you can see (from the street) that there is a carpet of snowdrops in the back yard too. It’s amazing!!
I bought one of these last year on a discount cart for $5 (I had originally seen it for $40 about a month earlier). We’ll see if it has survived my zone 3 winter (I don’t have high hopes).
Helebores my favourite plant normally the first thing I plant in any garden