First Spring - Sally's Shell Hellebores - March 2021

Last Spring, while the world was pretty well shut down, The Growing Place nursery got creative and held a 'drive thru' shopping experience.  You couldn't get out of your cars, but you could drive thru the areas with the plants, shout out to the staff who would grab something for you and toss it in your trunk.  We ended up buying a few things that were part of our plan (Summer Beauty Allium) and some that weren't (Harry Lauder's Walking Stick contorted tree), but were things we wanted.  One of the other items we bought was our first Lenten Rose (or Hellebores).  We picked a Sally's Shell and planted it in Spring.  It was flowering when we bought it and I was careful to watch it all Summer.

Notice, I said "a" Sally's Shell.  Which, upon reflection, is a very common gardening mistake:  buying just one of something.   Our plan has a couple of spots that call for drifts of Hellebores - and one of them is this season's "Priority Area #2".  In that section, the plan calls for ten - and that's where I planted the one from last year.  

I was nervous about this one coming back, but earlier this month, I spotted some new, purple growth coming out of the wood chips that I applied late last year.  So, it survived.  And it has grown ever since.

My biggest fear on this one right now is if the kids trample it, so I took one of the chicken wire cages I made to mulch in our roses last Winter and put it in place around this Lenten Rose.  You can see it in the photo below:

These are quite lovely flowers and I now can't wait to plant the other nine of these to (hopefully) see a really beautiful show come Spring 2022.  

Below, is another photo showing the multi-colored petals and the green, vein-y, leaves.