winter garden

Helleborus x ballardiae 'Mahogany Snow'

The Christmas Rose Bowl

Coming in second place to the Helleborus niger we posted earlier is Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Mahogany Snow’. This is a cross of the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger and Helleborus lividus. The flowers emerge white, then age to a lovely salmon pink. We find this hellebore hybrid much easier to grow than either parent.

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It’s time for snow….roses

It’s time for the start of Christmas rose/snow rose season to begin. We were delighted to find our clump of the Balkan native, Helleborus niger ‘Jesko’ in full flower. These are always exceptional honeybee favorites, as well as being great evergreen perennials for the winter season. We find that light shade to a couple of

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Foghorn Stinkhorn

Greeting me on a recent foggy winter morning garden walk was a specimen of the fascinating Clathus columnatus, better known as column stinkhorn. It lives on dead and decaying organic matter, so is often seen growing in mulched areas. In the US, it’s typically seen East of the Mississippi, but many mycologists theorize it was

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Looking you in the eye…the new Lenten Roses

We continue to be impressed with the continuing parade of new selections of sterile lenten roses, in particular, the clones of Helleborus x iburgensis. These fascinating hybrids that originated at RD plants in England, are crosses of Helleborus x ballardiae (niger x lividus) x Helleborus x hybridus. In other words, these hybrids have up to

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Have you caught Galanthophila?

Galanthophila, an obsession with snowdrops of the genus Galanthus, is spreading almost as fast as COVID did through both Europe and North America. While we love and value galanthus for their flowering in the winter garden, we’ve yet to take the plunge into full-fledged galanthophilia, which results in people sacrificing meals to have the latest

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