Sorry, Anita, I forgot to mention that the name is misleading. It started out as a place where they grew herbs, but now it has perennials (like helleborus), tropicals, annuals, trees, shrubs, bog/water plants, etc....you name it. There are also a lot of cool planters and birdbaths and fountains that we'll have! We're garden nuts, so it's a lot of fun for people like us!!!
Helleborus - what is it doing?
look what I just found - great pics in the photo forum! http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/577031/
whew - too cold to go outside even for me so i've been at the computer FOREVER and timidly and proudly announce the birth of www.winterwoods.net it is pretty rough and i'll continue to work on it but i would really appreciate honest feedback from you guys on this preliminary posting
manythanks mcgina
Mcgina, Two of our favorite plants up in the cold north are epi's and Hellebores. Great philosophy and a great site. Wishing you much success. Ken
Mcgina- That is a beautiful website! You have really done a great job. I just bookmarked you!
McGina, your site is gorgeous!! I too have added you to my garden bookmarks. Your site is very straightforward, which I like. So many sites these days are "fluffy" feeling but yours is solid. Your information is to the point and easily understood. The writing is clear and concise (another thing that so many sites get wrong) and the site is easy to navigate. The photos are outstanding. All in all I am incredibly impressed!
I am quickly turning into a hellebores addict, and would love to learn and try growing some from seed. So I may have to place an order once you're ready to give advice to a hellebore newbie :)
This is a lovely thread and I have really enjoyed seeing the photos, particularly the more colorful Heritage strain (have I got that right? Oh, well). I almost always buy container plants -- impatient, that's me -- and our urban Northern CA lots are rather small by most standards. So I only have three hellebores scattered in different places. They are wonderful plants, and if I'd known they did so well here I would have bought more! My long range plans are to make the garden easier to take care of, and this thread has inspired me to plan to eventually replace some plants I have with more hellebores as I can afford them.
To confirm what someone mentioned above, hellebores in mild coastal areas do indeed flower for incredibly long periods of time. My H. foetidus is in bloom 7-8 months out of the year. Planted from a 1-qt container about 3 years ago:
To continue: I'll post twice more with the photos of my other 2 hellebores. I'm surprised I don't see them in Bay Area gardens more often, they don't seem to be very popular here. Maybe they get overshadowed by the more showy plants we can grow here? For instance, the bright red Toyon berries are still around looking Christmas-y, even as my hibiscus defies last night's rare frost and is throwing out blooms, as is my bright purple Tibouchina urvilleana.
Anyway, here's my one pretty pink hellebore. It survived a major slug attack to throw out a crown of beautiful blooms, starting two months ago. I just took this photo this morning, sorry for the contrasty light. Interestingly enough, this is in a VERY mixed bed, and the slugs only attacked this one plant. Obviously slugs with good taste, LOL!
OK, last pix: This is again a H.foetidus at the foot of a silver maple. I have it with other plants that create a good foliage mix. I'm big on foliage as something reliable and satisfying to the eye, allowing the flower colors to come and go amidst a nice backdrop.
L-R, this hellebore sits with the following: a silver-white helichrysum subshrub (often called 'curry plant' which it really isn't, but the leaves smell like curry when crushed), the hellebore in bloom, a wonderful dark purple bearded iris that has no perfume but I forgive it because it's prolific and blooms at least 3x year with beautiful blue-green spiky foliage, and then the tiny round leaves of a Helichrysum petiolare "Variegata" with its green-and-white colors trying to overrun everything (it's a very vigorous groundcover even in dry shade).
Hellebores actually do fine in sun with sufficient moisture, but they don't like to get too hot. Like clematis, they prefer those cool shady feet!
Mcgina - Wonderful job on the new website! I agree with the comment above - it's nice to go to a website with clear, concise, and no bs information. Well done.
jkom - What I'd give to have blooms in my garden in the middle of February here in the frigid Midwest!
Mcgina, I'm quite impressed! Very nice job, and such an exciting venture. The seedlings you sent look like they were there all along; transplanted beautifully.
jkom, beatiful plants!
jkom, that last picture is gorgeous, you truly garden in paradise
sstateham - but you can! that's why we're all wacko over hellebores
I put in several hellebores last year and the year before - so far no blooms, but I'm sure they'll come soon. I'm ready!
jkom51- that pink in pic 2 is stunning. What is thegreeny purplish tiny groundcover to the right and underneath? Very nice combo, the tiny foliage picks up the color of the hellebore nicely.
Somehow I missed this thread.
It has been a fun read catching up.
I started w/ Royal Heritage when they first came out.
I was not impressed....UNTIL....a few years ago they started blooming heavily.
Absolutely gorgeous blooms and seriously a seriously long bloom time.
Because of the warm January the started blooming well early.
Just one plant but the others are playing catch-up.
I can state they will take a 10 degree temp in bloom w/ no damage.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2020720
Ric
today's favorite
neal - see the dark one behind the yellow? that's what i call "blue" and the one to the right "dark purple"
but both will change alot as blooms mature
oops, try again
mcgina, how old are these plants in the last picture? Our problem seems to be the more leaf mold the more slugs. How often should we treat with sluggo. Ken
ken - these are some of my oldest plants, grown from seed i ordered from G. Schmiemann who took over Hellen Ballards breeding program. I got the seed in 97 so i figure these have been in the ground since 99 or2000 - i can check records if you want more exact info
anyway they have been blooming gloriously for the last 5 years or so
i don't put much mulch in the beds - more to discourage voles than slugs and have only used slug bait in the pots a couple of times
check the posts around jan 25 in this thread for pictures of before and after bed cleanup - i cut off all the old leaves usually dec or jan - the old foliage is so dennse there's not much leaf build up
Hi ya'll...had to write in and tell everyone of my great freebies. My sister's brother-in-law's home has been sold to make room for a bank. There are hundreds of lenten roses under a magnolia tree and in the woods. They are huge!! and blooming. He told us to get all we wanted because everything will be bulldozed. I filled up the back of my Jeep...13 HUGE plants and am going back this week if weather cooperates. My sister and I will not leave ONE out there to die......I just love freebies
Scshadylady, I am SO jealous!!!!!
Ditto!
Sylvia
I took a walk out to the shade beds this afternoon, and I think that all but one of my hellebores are dead, with the last one hanging on but not looking great.
Bummer!!!!
What happened?
SStateham... they are not dead. I thought mine were dead too. I received a slew of Helleborus from a Dg'er buddy in GA, and while I was planting I saw new growth coming up everywhere and new blooms! I am so excited because they been in the ground for three years. and now I have all these other variaties too. :)
Sylvia
I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed, but they're flat, brown, and I didn't see any new growth. I'll take a better look and shoot a pic today.
stateham - i'll keep fingers and toes crossed for you to - scratch cautiously uner surface of soil, they might be planted too deep
attached is recent pic of hellebore bed
Here's what most of them look like...
But lookee what I found! Several of them do have new shoots.
Apparently all is not lost.
Not to worry, my mother's look very similar to yours sstateham and hers always come back HUGE in late winter/early spring. Mine look brown and dead, but mine were just planted last year so for all I know they are truly dead :)
This message was edited Feb 26, 2006 9:32 PM
Yeeyyyy Stacy! Don't you love it when you get happy suprises like that.
I was going to say that being in Zone 4b you are 2 to 5 zones behind all the others posting here.
It stands to reason your Helleborus would be later appearing.
Looks like they are peeking out nicely. Congrats!
Ric
Stateham are you a virgo? see that Sapphire ring on your finger, if you are, you are just like me, we are born to worry. lol Calypso calm down. If they been thriving for a year, I am quite sure they are not dead. I dont believe I am saying all this. A few weeks ago I was a basket case, now I see them coming up everywhere. with what I planted yesterday, I might have too many for my little space. :)
Sylvia
pic from yesterday's planting in the rain.lol
lol Syliva. Actually I'm a Sagitarius. Patience is not one of the virtues that comes with that!
There's a story behind the ring... my sweetheart and I have been together for a long time, but neither of us wants to get married. He got me that because he wanted something that symbolized our relationship, but that wasn't a traditional diamond. Sapphires are symbolic of happiness and peace, so that's what he picked. The diamonds one either side represent us two, and the sapphire is the happiness between us. We joke that it's my Happily Shacked Up Ring :)
Wooo hoooing at my un-dead Hellebores!
(sounds likes something out of an Ann Rice novel)
How lucky you are SStateham ... lucky in love and in Helleborus too.:)
Sylvia
yep - I'll keep him :)
if you grow them you eventually take this picture
Oooh... very nice!
MCGINA , hwo did you do that? How do you get the flowers first? Amazing!
Sylvia
sylvia- not sure i understand your ? flowers first? i cut off all the old leaves so i can see what's happening on mature plants the flowers come first
they are lovely - i can't figure out why the world isn't beating a path to my door - the floating blooms will last a week, i have some in a dish outside that froze and they're still pretty