Winter Gardening and Hellebores....

So it's always a mixed bag for me for the month of January.  After the rush of a busy fall landscaping season its rather nice to enjoy the slower pace of the new year, thinking ahead to my spring gardens, planning ahead for the warmer April- May weather to come.  I love looking through all the plant catalogues now, perusing the new introductions and thinking of spots in the garden where I can cram in just one or two more perennials. (there's always room for more, right?)

right???

It's been so relatively mild though this winter, with so little snow on the ground that I've found myself actually out in the garden more... usually in winters' past I've just admired it from the warmth of my living room window, cup of coffee in hand...

I tend to be a rather lazy gardener in the fall.  I tell myself that I leave the seed heads on the echinacea and black-eyed susans for the birds, but really... by October and November with the shorter days and cooler temps, I'm entering my 'winter-hibernation-mode'. 

January gets me thinking again though...



Cinnamon Snow Helleborus

 Being a landscaper avails me to all sorts of fun new plant introductions and three that are already on my order list are some of the newest Hellebores.  If you haven't paid attention to them lately the world of Hellebores is exploding with new cultivars, many of them intended to start blooming in December and continue on through February!  It would be so much more fun to stroll through the gardens on these recent mild days and see some of these looking back at me!



Pink Frost Helleborus

  

Josef  Lemper Helleborus

 

Hellebores are fabulous plants, relatively carefree once established and do well with partial sun to dappled shade.  Their foliage is evergreen and the flowers bloom in large, long lasting clusters once the plants are a year or two old... I've already grown several others under the shade of my dogwood tree, and they really are low maintenance with a great showing of flowers year after year.

I'm hoping that, by thinking ahead for next winter now (assuming I'll be just as lazy next fall!)  I'll be able to have some of these beauties in my own garden, blooming until the first bulbs start to pop their heads up in spring.... when I'm ready to get out there and join them.

Give me a call 432.0788 or drop us an email if you'd like a few of these for your own garden... I'd be happy to share the hellebore love!