Wandering the Boston Flower and Garden Show last Saturday, random people asked me repeated about one particular plant. Maybe it’s because I was wearing my Speaker’s Badge and looked official. Which plant you ask? the Hellebore. Seems to be the year of the Hellebore for me. At least at the show and in my front and back gardens.
It’s the perennial flowering to the left of the moss covered rock water feature in the photo above and below in the right corner. That tag says it’s a Lenten variety, Helleborus ‘Pink Frost’.
In our New England gardens we appreciate evergreen leaves. That’s an especially nice feature in this last snow-less winter. Below you see the one emerging in my front garden. We’re enjoying a spring heat wave hitting temperatures and breaking records going back to the late 1940’s–almost 80 degrees today. High seventies last several. Normal temperatures are high 40’s this time of year. So it’s unusual for the hellebore whose flower buds were present in December, to bloom in the Boston suburbs now.
I’ve placed this single plant near the Witch Hazel so they might bloom in tandem some years. Designed as an entry garden, this original planting combination welcomes all to my home and provides a lingering moment in my busy day.
I was testing the location to see how well the plant grew as I hadn’t grown them before. Now I plan to add another 4 or 6 to make a drift that will be fabulous knock-out display in spring and create an evergreen back drop for the budded multi-stemmed Witch Hazel (Hamamelis ‘Arnold Promise’) all winter. I suspect this is a Lenten variety, but I don’t remember and will have to find the tag or match the flowers when they open. But as my first perennial to bloom this year, I’m celebrating it even as the early spring bulbs are opening as we speak to compete for my admiration.
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