Hellebores Appearing Early - February 2023

In what feels like a 'too early' emergence, our set of four Hellebores (or Lenten Roses) are all showing a little bit of new growth peeking out of the mulch.  And...it is just mid-February.  Now, I have a limited history with Hellebores as I've only had them for a few years.  Well, actually three of them were planted late last Spring.  And one of them has been in the ground since May of 2020 (Sally's Shell).  That means that this Spring is the FIRST Spring for the three Ivory Prince Hellebores from the Morton Arboretum sale and thus, I have no date-benchmark for emergence.  But..now I suppose that I do.

Now, what are the historical dates in the garden diary for Hellebores?

2021:  Sally Shell:  March 9th. 

2022:  Sally's Shell: March 18th.

This year?  Have a look at the Ivory Prince showing the tip along with last year's foliage:

And the Sally's Shell:

That means:

2023:  Both Sally's Shell and Ivory Prince:  February 15th.

That's three-plus weeks earlier than they have either emerged or when I've noticed them.  

Is this a problem?  I'm not sure, but I don't think so.  We've had a pretty mild Winter with just a few little multi-day streaks of very cold temperatures and what feels like (to me, at least) a pretty mild overall Winter.  Could that be part of the reason why these are emerging in mid-February?  Perhaps.  

Also, these are now another year older - Sally's Shell has had three full growing seasons behind it.  The Ivory Prince had a full growing season last year. 

I'd like to add even more of these this season and will (hopefully) bring a few more home from the Morton sale as this area is one of the potential areas of priority in the backyard for this year.