My Hellebores

Today the meteorological spring starts here in Britain and although some people stubbornly keep to the astronomical start of spring, which is 21st March, here in London 1st of March is a good time to start talking about spring – the gardens and parks have usually started their spring flowers well before this date anyway.

Down at the bottom of my garden the woodland  plants are on their way up and most of the spring bulbs are in full flower.

The area with hellebores is growing every year, mostly because I can’t resist buying new hellebores, but also because I finally have some hellebore babies of a size that doesn’t need a magnifying glass.

I used to deadhead my hellebores the first few years, and the few seeds that did survive would just fall onto the lawn I used to have right next to them. After re-designing my garden, the hellebores got their own area where they can multiply and seed around as they want – for a while at least, it is amazing how many seeds one flower can produce!

I leave most of the seedlings in the ground, but there are too many in each place so I lift some of them and pot on and they are allowed to grow here on my nursery shelf. These are 2 years old and will not flower for another 2 years. Can’t wait to see what colour they will be, perhaps I will get something completely different to their parents?

And here is the first and only hellebore baby flower I have produced from seed so far! OK, I know it looks very ordinary, just plain, single and nothing special, but I have waited almost 5 years for this beauty to flower so it was certainly worth a photo and a celebration!

The double Helleborus hybridus are the most spectacular, this is 'Double White Spotted'  and 'Double White’.

And here is another double, Helleborus hybridus 'Double Slaty Blue' together with the brilliant white Helleborus niger. In my garden, Helleborus niger is much later than all the Helleborus hybridus, one of my two Helleborus niger isn’t properly flowering yet. I think that’s a bit strange, as Helleborus niger is supposed to be the early one.

Bottom left is Helleborus hybridus 'Double Ellen Picotee', although to me that is not a double hellebore, but that’s how it was labelled. The other three are the original three hellebores I got exactly 10 years ago in March 2004. I have since successfully split the white freckled as it stopped flowering, but the other two are still going strong so I haven’t touched them yet. The bottom right (in bud and in flower) is the hellebore that also flowers in the summer, with pink flowers, if you haven’t read my posts and seen the photos, please have a look here and you can read all about my summer flowering hellebore.

Some close-ups of the collection.

I spent the day filming my garden, I haven’t done that for ages and today was a good day for it. I hope you enjoy going for a stroll in the spring weather in my tiny garden - and let me just say one thing; in all the years I have been gardening here, I have never had camellias and fuchsias in flower at the same time!

The music was ‘In Paradisum’ from Fauré Requiem, D minor, op 48.

My cat is enjoying the nice warm weather too and is always outside in the garden with me – often being the ‘deputy head gardener’ and walking behind me wherever I go.  He is digging a bit here, digging a bit there and basically trying to be helpful, although the spring bulbs are flying around as he is digging - and I have to try my best to tuck them back into the flowerbeds as quickly as I can.

Can you just see how he is enjoying the sun?

And when the sun has gone down and there is a chill in the air, it’s time to hog the lovely fleece throw and just have a chill-out.

It’s a hard life being the deputy head gardener.

I hope you are having signs of spring in your garden too, and if you are on the other side of the world, I hope you had a good summer so you can face autumn and whatever it may bring. Until next time, take care.

I am linking this post to Mosaik Monday at Mary’s Little Red House.