Hellebores

It’s funny how plants come into your life.

I first met Hellebores at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

Virginia, Debra and I were on a visit to the Big Apple and we decided to do a gardening day.

It’s funny because we thought we were at the New York Botanical Garden – the driver must have been from Brooklyn!

We came upon a raised bed packed with the most glorious plant I had ever seen.

I had no idea of what it was.

I sought it out and bought one.

It was planted with much care – and it sat there – didn’t do anything for a few years.

I moved it to a neighbor’s yard then my own new garden at this house.

It sat there.

Finally, after all that it began to bloom and it has been a joy ever since.

It usually starts budding in late January and blooming by Valentines.

And if that’s not great enough the blooms last for months.

Then after they are finished the wonderful umbrella leaves will grace flower arrangements all summer long.

They are shade loving and almost evergreen.

God knew what he was doing when he made Hellebores.

So what am I up to this week.

It’s pretty much the same as last week cutting back perennials and removing the blanket of leaves I put down last fall.

The problem is always what to do with all those leaves.

I bag them….I pile them in corners….I pile them in paths.

I do anything I can not to throw them away.

Eventually I put them into one pile and let them rot.

By fall you have a rich organic pile that can be spread all over the garden.

They are well worth the trouble of saving.

The other thing you can do now is to give your roses a drink of Epsom salt water.

Add a fist full of Epsom salt to a gallon of water and pour it over the rose at the ground.

It will love you for it and start greening up before your very eyes.

Here’s what’s blooming this week:  Hellebores, daffodils, violas and a few grape hyacinths.

So enjoy the week….delight in the sunshine and the miracle of spring.

Gail

“Adapt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”     Ralph Waldo Emerson