Thursday 23 April 2009

Singing the praises of hellebores.











Have you ever stopped to think what absolutely marvellous value the hellebore is in the garden? Now, as I type this, there are four spectacular ones all out at once, and all will seed freely around the garden. Then next year, as Vita Sackville-West says in "The Garden Book" - the seedlings will come up in all sorts of places, most of them in far more inspirational settings than the gardener would have thought to plant them.
I am short of time today - so here are the four photographs so that you can feast your eyes on the beautiful flowers.
Clockwise from the top left: Lenten rose; sylvestris; argutifolius; aquarius.

18 comments:

Heather said...

I have to stop myself from buying hellebores - we only have a small garden and I am thrilled when they have babies! I love the look of 'sylvestris' - I haven't got one of those.

Reader Wil said...

I enlarged your photos by clicking on them and enjoyed the beauty of these flowers! Thanks for sharing and for visiting. Your mum was a wise woman to teach you not to be scary. Before the lightning business, I was never frightened, now I am feeling uneasy when a thunderstorm starts.

Elizabeth said...

Hellebores are so elegant and lovely.
Oddly, I have never grown one myself but have every intention of before too very long.
Our garden in Essex was rather 1950's utilitarian, wallflowers, roses and dahlias, and gooseberries......red currents, blackcurrents etc etc.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful indeed. Inspirational, as we're currently revivifying the garden.

Dick

BT said...

I love them and we have managed to plant 2 here so far in the wooded area. They are doing ok. I love the 'stinking' hellibore, they spread to freely and look alien!

Woman in a Window said...

Beautiful! I'm just putting up with violets right now, but to me, well, you'd think they were edible. I wanna eat 'em up.

Cloudia said...

An eye's feat, indeed!
Aloha

The Weaver of Grass said...

Glad we are all agreed that the hellebore is wonderful - any plant that seeds freely is a happy plant - so happy seeding everyone!

Jinksy said...

Thanks for those pictures! We never had much luck with hellebores, in the days when we had a large garden. Perhaps we had the wrong kind of soil- or perhaps my veg-growing, non-plant orientated hubby used to weed 'em up before they had a chance! I remember him once doing just that to all the sea pinks I was carefully cultivating!

Unknown said...

I like Hellebores too, Weaver. But the only time we had them in the garden they didn't thrive! I love the Fritillary as well.

Leenie said...

My columbines do the same thing. I find them growing by the hedge and in bare spots around the yard. Nature has much better gardening sense than I.

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

They are such a treat. When it is too cold for anything else to bloom...there they are...cheering up the landscape.

Gigi Ann said...

I have never seen these "Hellebores" before. They are very lovely.

Lucy Corrander said...

I'm going to have to follow suit sometime and see if I can grow hellebores. I hadn't even noticed them until the last few months and now I am smitten. Previously, I'd been put off by the name which sounds oddly mysterious.

Lucy
PICTURES JUST PICTURES

The Weaver of Grass said...

Looks as though Hellebores R Us.

Mistlethrush said...

I managed to kill my hellebores off - no idea how. What a shame - I really liked them!

Janice Thomson said...

And beautiful they are Weaver! I love hellebores - ours are white - will have to do a post with them too.

Rosaria Williams said...

Hellebores seed themselves? How lovely. I first planted two plants last summer, enjoyed a blooming in early spring, and can't praise them enough. NOw I learn they self seed. Wonderful.