Early January Hellebores Check-In - January 2023

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A quick check-in on our small grouping of Hellebores - Lenten Roses - in the backyard here in the garden diary.  These are planted in a small colony of four.  The last time I showed these was early December when all four were still green and leafy.  As I've mentioned in a few other recent posts, we had a VERY cold period of weather right around Christmas where we saw sub-zero temperatures with no snow cover for insulation.  That moved just about everything in the garden along to their final dormancy stage.  

When I was out this past weekend looking at the Hellebores (one Sally's Shell, three Ivory Prince), I noticed that there was a change that you can see in the photo below:  The Sally's Shell Hellebore has taken on mostly brown and dead foliage while the three more-recently-planted Ivory Prince Hellebores are all still winter green:

These are some of my EARLIEST bloomers and typically have the first growth that requires protection from late Winter/early Spring kid trampling.  I'll keep an eye on these to see what sort of show they put on this Spring - and also....I'm thinking that adding more of these via the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale is going to be a big budget-focus for me this year. 

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