Cherry Ong often shares her travels to other gardens in our GPOD on the Road feature, but today we’re in her beautiful home garden in British Columbia, looking at the flowers of late winter and early spring.
Helleborus argutifolius ‘Silver Lace’ (Zones 6–8) is a hellebore that doesn’t have the bright colors of some of the hybrids, but it more than makes up for it with the silvery-green, sawtooth foliage.
Winter wreaths make a backdrop for crocus (Crocus vernus, Zones 3–8) and greens in urns from Craigslist.
Helleborus Winter Jewels ‘Onyx Odyssey’ (Zones 5–9)
Always spectacular in the spring is my 15-year-old Helleborus × hybridus ‘Kingston Cardinal,’ a Dan Hinkley hellebore.
Kingston Cardinal’s companion hellebore in the same bed, also 15 years old, is Helleborus × hybridus ‘Goldfinch.’ This one suffered from botrytis several years ago, and I tried my best to save it. To me, it looks much better, but there are still traces of it. Hopefully it will continue to get better and I can keep the plant for a lifetime.
I cut some hellebore flowers and brought them to work! The best way to brighten everyone’s day is to bring them flowers.
Here are the first blooms of Narcissus bulbodicum ‘Spoirot’ (Zones 4–8). Who can resist these hoopskirt flowers? I tried planting some in containers last year and am still waiting for the flowers.
I’m not really sure about the name of this hellebore in my backyard; it might be Helleborus × hybridus ‘Apricot Blush.’ It’s definitely a Marietta O’Byrne hellebore. I love her entire collection of winter jewels and wish I had the space to grow them all!
Saxifraga × geum ‘Dentata’ (Zones 6–9) is so easy to grow. It’s unbelievable how it’s grown into such a huge mass from one little pot.
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Comments
Beautiful!!! Love all of your hellebores!!! The winter wreath with urns in front is quite a lovely scene!! Thank you Cherry for always sharing such amazing pictures with us all!!!!
Thank you for your kind words. Happy spring!
Jealous of those hellebores!. A real uplift with my morning coffee as it is minus 11°C here this morning with a forecast of 15 -25 cm of snow tonight and tomorrow
Happy that the post provided you an uplift. Hope your own garden provides you with joy and happiness with its blooms soon.
Spring has arrived and your many hellebores are as delicately magnificent as always, Cherry! I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment of photos from your summer gardens... always a joy!
Yesterday was 82 in Tucson, tonight will be below freezing so my gardening chore today will be covering my tenders with frost cloth! Yikes!!! Luckily, we'll be in the 80's again this weekend. Freaky weather year.
Thank you Sheila. It’s always nice to hear from you. My frost cloth is on standby as we’re still getting cold temps on some days. It also hailed half the day on Sunday. I would love to see photos of your current garden so I hope you send in some photos. I miss all your fabulous container designs. Still keep a folder of inspiration photos to review before the summer container season starts.
When we lived in Denver we had a lot of hail... I hate hail!!! Hope it didn't damage to many of your beauties! Maybe once I get our low desert gardens to my satisfaction I'll send in photos. I think I'm getting close?
I'm so inspired to see your hellebores and your Narcissus bulbodicum ‘Spoirot’!!!! So beautiful, I saved your photos!
It’s so charming and irresistible. Got it from a local nursery last year. I’m waiting for my Arctic Bells to flower - fingers crossed since right now all I see are leaves.
I just added Narcissus bulbodicum to my Potential Plants spreadsheet! I don't usually "do" bulbs, but I hope to find these little beauties :-)
That bowl of hellebores! Wonderful! Thank you for all of your terrific posts.
Cherry - your urn groupings and photography are so gorgeous. Thank you for sharing. I did not know anything about Saxifraga × geum ‘Dentata’ and looked up more about it. The mature leaf margins are so eye-catching.
Cherry, your Hellebores are beautiful, especially the Onyx
Odyssey. Thank you for sharing and Happy Gardening.
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