As Spring Approaches . . .

It's an almost unbelievable phenomenon -- here we had a brutal winter (even snowed in for a week in January - that had never happened before in all my decades in Georgia) and now we are ending February with spring-like weather. What will March bring us?

The Hellebores are continuing a great presence in my garden. I read somewhere that they are an old, tough species of plant, having been known to grow, virtually undisturbed, in the same location for 40 or 50 years.

You will have noticed in plant nursery catalog that a Hellebore's flower is frequently photographed with the fingers of someone's hand underneath it. Logical! They grow low to the ground, with their faces turned down. So, other than cutting them, this is the only solution.

Last year, having received this bounty in 2009 from a gardening friend 50 miles away, only one plant bloomed (one bloom!); this year, that plant has several stems with multiple flowers. And a second plant has now gotten into the blooming act as well. I'm delighted!

Hello, Hellebores!

Today is the first day of the year that, with 67F, we can be outside without coats, hats and gloves, so it was time to go exploring in my garden. And sure enough . . ., covered in 6 or more inches of show less than two weeks ago, I found three Hellebores reaching for the sun today!

Needless to say, there are better Hellebore picture galleries to look at, but at least I'll have a few blooms of my own to photograph soon.

In some parts of my garden, the Daffodils are also beginning to pop out of the ground. Can Spring be far behind? Well, yes, actually, it can. But there are hopeful signs in my garden this 29th of January, 2011!