Hellebores Galore! (Not)

I read a gardening magazine a few years ago at work about this new-to-me interesting little flower. All kinds of interesting colour combos were photographed of sweet bell-shaped nodding flowers. I remember googling them sometime later on to discover that they are the perfect fit for my shady, deer-infested, woodsy back yard :) 

Time went by with Hellebores stored away in the back of my subconscious until one day I stumbled upon some at Brunswick Nursaries! The joy of an unexpected find! I bought two labeled Lenten Rose... Something-something hybrid and stuck em in my shady corner garden under my azalea. I checked on them now and then but they'd been passed their bloom time when I bought them, so I only had strange palm-and-finger-like greenery to deal with. 

This Spring I was reading about them because I knew they're early bloomers and should be expecting them to pop up soon. Turns out one of them didn't seem to survive the winter - the foliage turned brown and withered, while the other still looked green... As though it didn't experience the horrible winter the rest of us went through. I cut them both back to ground level then, and within a week (May 17) I had these little heads popping up from the one that survived!

What shy little darlings. 

Only 2 days went by and they opened up! 

They're so interesting and it's lovely to have a little burst of bright green and pink in the normally drowsy and slow-to-grow shady corner garden. 

I checked on them again today and see 2 or 3 more flower buds developing. The excitement!!

Needless to say, I'll keep an eye out for some more this year and plant some friends for this lady!

Striped Maples are Amazing!

They grow flowers!! Wow, I had no idea! 

And the bark! Just don't even talk to me about those bright green stripes in the dark bark. 

I love you, Striped Maple. Thanks for rooting on my hill. 

Dahlia Bulbs

I bought this pack of 5 dahlias from Home Hardware a few weeks ago on sale... I've never tried dahlias before - I don't love the idea of having to pull bulbs up in the Fall, but despite being a lazy gardener, I did have some yellow gladiola in the garden last year and didn't really mind digging them up storing them. As long as I don't end up getting more and more that can't overwinter, I can find the time to pull up a few. Especially if I put them together, I'll just haul out the whole section of garden.

Anyway, the dahlias are sitting in their big pots out on the deck right now working on their little sprouts under the soil. I have to bring them in at night if it gets too cold, but hopefully it'll be warm enough soon to leave out. Until they manage to break through, I'll have these lovely pictures to look at in anticipation.

The box has one of each variety and calls the collection Painted Dinnerplate Purple Passion Bulbs:

Vancouver

Avignon

Bristol Stripe

Mom's Special

Taiheijo

Can't wait to see how they look along the side of the deck fence! I think they'll look pretty as a row in front of those yellow glads I mentioned! Plus then I only have to dig up the one section of garden in the Fall.