Helleborus orientalis ‘Anja Oudolf’
I have acquired a new hellebore. Isn’t she gorgeous?
Deep pink buds which take on increasing tints of yellow as the bloom opens. The inner side of each petal is streaked with pink and retains the colour on the edge even as the flower matures. If Ptolemy the pheasant has the top off this one even I may be getting the recipe book out.
![Helleborus orientalis 'Double Yellow Speckled' 001 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Helleborus-orientalis-Double-Yellow-Speckled-001-Wm1.jpg)
Helleborus orientalis ‘Double Yellow Speckled’
I couldn’t resist this rather lovely double either. Well, it was Valentine’s Day. A fact that I felt compelled to mention to Mike as his eyes popped out on the proverbial stalks when we got to the till.
![Helleborus 'Penny's Pink' 002 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Helleborus-Pennys-Pink-002-Wm1.jpg)
Helleborus ‘Penny’s Pink’
Meanwhile, last month’s indulgence is settling in well.
Hellebores come but once a year and what else is there to drool over in February?
![Galanthus nivalis 010 Wm[2]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Galanthus-nivalis-010-Wm2.jpg)
Galanthus nivalis
As it turns out, quite a lot. There are snowdrops. The ‘ordinary’ drops are now much in evidence, carpeting the woodland floor.
![Wild Primrose 003 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Wild-Primrose-003-Wm1.jpg)
Primula vulgaris
Wild primroses just starting to pop up.
![Pulmonaria 004 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Pulmonaria-004-Wm1.jpg)
Pulmonaria
And a rivulet of blue trickling down the slope.
![Narcissus cyclamineus 004 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Narcissus-cyclamineus-004-Wm1.jpg)
Narcissus cyclamineus
The miniature narcissus that I love so much and have only just dared to plant out. Mice do seem to leave them alone. Didn’t I read somewhere that the bulbs are poisonous? This one survived an attack in the cold frame, the species tulip placed alongside it has been consigned to history I fear.
![Narcissus bulbocodium var. citrinus 001 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Narcissus-bulbocodium-var.-citrinus-001-Wm1.jpg)
Narcissus bulbocodium var. citrinus
![Iris reticulata 'Katherine Hodgkin' 001 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Iris-reticulata-Katherine-Hodgkin-001-Wm1.jpg)
Iris reticulata ‘Katherine Hodgkin’
Bulbs are such a problem here but this clump of iris, thin as it may be, has a partial success story to tell.
Last autumn I started planting bulbs into wire cages in the ground in a last ditch attempt to defeat the mice. And for the first time since we’ve been here they’ve actually come up! The trouble is I now need cages above ground too. Most of the flower heads have been nipped off. Not eaten, just discarded on the ground. The earlier emerging Iris ‘Pauline’ went the same way.
We will persevere. Hope Over Experience.
Isn’t that what gardening is all about?
![Winter planting 001 Wm[1]](https://www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Winter-planting-001-Wm1.jpg)
Linking to Carol and Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens (here), where you will find many other February bloomers from around the world.
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Lots of beautiful flowers!
Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day!
Lea
Thanks Lea, you too.
Beautiful, I love the hellebores! Happy garden bloggers’ bloom day! X
They just seem too exotic for February. They get frosted and drop their heads and as soon as the sun comes up they’re right as rain again. Love them too.
I have observed young rabbits biting off growing plant tips and then discarding them, almost as if they are tasting, to see if they like them. I collect second-hand hanging baskets to use as plant protectors. Great to see you are back connected to the ‘inter’ world Jessica.
That’s a good idea. I’ve got some old hanging baskets too. Thanks for the tip. 🙂
such a gorgeous hellebore – they don’t seem to do very well in my garden. Your garden is so much further ahead – no spring flowers in mine yet, although I found some galanthus nivali in the local woods. I am loving your new blog-look!
There’s a huge amount of work to do to get the blog properly configured, some of it has to be done post by post it seems, but I also want to try and get the old theme reinstalled and working again. Some things work better on that but I like the look of this one too. Swings and roundabouts.
Oh,your new Helleborus are so beautiful – realy pretty to see. My Helleborus are not flowering in the moment, we are 400 m above sea level, and it is realy cold here. But the sun is shining. I have some snowdrops potted – I must have spring now.
Sigrun
Yes, I am more than ready for Spring. There are leaf buds appearing on the roses and shoots pushing up through the ground, I wish I could remember what they all are. It won’t be long now.
Sorry about your flower tasters! Despite their best efforts, you still have many beautiful things blooming right now! Happy GBBD to you!
There are too many flower tasters that’s the problem. Difficult to know where to point the finger of blame. Not that it matters, they’ll carry on anyway!
Agghh Ptolomey and his friends!! Such beautiful flowers though – that have survived!! I hope that your new Hellebores make it as they are stunners aren’t they, especially the double, how incredible is that – and tell Mike, much longer lasting and I suspect far cheaper than a dozen roses!! Glad to see that you are regaining your blog, I understand as I still have to fix the rest of mine! xx
Like you, the annoying thing is having to go back to each and every post to re-configure the format. So time consuming! I have a cunning plan for the hellebores. They are going on the slope. Mr P will have more of a problem getting to them there.
I like that first hellebore, a real beauty. There’s no sign of my primroses flowering at the moment which is a bit of a blow as this was my February flowering plant, it looks like they’re going to be late bloomers.
They are only just starting here really… I almost trod on it whilst we were taking the photo of the snowdrops. And you are a lot farther north so I wouldn’t give up hope yet. Also things seem later this year. February Gold daffs are going to struggle I think!
Lovely bloomers, Jessica – the only thing blooming in our garden at the moment is heather. Those Hellebores are gorgeous:)
The hellebores are lovely, I hope they look as lovely next year when they’ve had to cope with the elements! It’s odd, I’ve got an inherited, well established heather outside the kitchen window which I swear was pink last year. Now it’s white.
So many beauitful blooms, we only have snowdrops at the moment. It’s too cold for anything else stil :). I am waiting to see if the mice have eaten any of the bulbs I planted last autumn. I expect they have they have eaten all the snowdrops which were in the garden when we arrived, a whole carpet of them in one bed……..
The mice are such a pain. I’m surprised they’ve eaten snowdrops though, especially established ones. Tulips and crocuses are their favourites. I just wish they would develop a taste for Spanish bluebells, but not even a nibble.
It is nice to have a preview of all these beauties which, here in Eastern Canada, won’t be up for still quite a while. The colour of ‘Anja Oudolf’ is amazing.
It is an amazing colour, I hope it doesn’t fade too much. We shall see.
I love your Hellebores, Anja Oudolf is fabulous; did she breed it herself do you know? your Iris reticulata are flowering at the same time as mine.
It’s such a new variety, I couldn’t find out much about it on the internet. I am assuming Anja is Piet’s wife.
She certainly is! All of them are… Tell Ptolemy about the recipe for roast pheasant?
Your Narcissus are lovely too. I’ve never been properly enthusiastic about the bulbocodiums, but your is enough to make me rethink that silly opinion. By the way, in my rabbit-ridden Midwest garden, the narcissus always did come up – very reliably. I think it must be true about the bulbs being poisonous to rodents! I gave up on tulips… except that some of species tulips, oddly enough, usually did avoid being munched?? Of course, rabbits are not mice…
It’s great to see your blog up and running again 🙂
I think Mike has told Ptolemy about that recipe many a time. Shortly after we moved in a dozen of them turned up one day and Mike declared we were ‘overrun’. The recipe threat has stuck. I’ve planted out the bulbocodium, but it looks far too delicate to cope with life in this garden. I shall keep a watch on it. If it starts to struggle it will be whipped out again and spend its time as a greenhouse/cold frame specimen.
The only hellebores I have that are flowering are the really dark ones so I am really envious of your lovely selection – if only they weren’t so expensive. I have no outdoor bulbs flowering either – thank goodness I had the foresight to plant some indoors to keep me going.
I meant to get some going for indoors and it’s one of those things I kept forgetting about until it was too late. Next year..
Oh good to see you back Jessica. ‘Anja’ is fabulous. May have to let myself be tempted if I come across her. I admire yor strategic planning – plant shopping to coincide with Valentine’s Day 🙂 I will have to try and remember that for next year. Pulmonarias in flower already? It must be that much warmer with you.
Pulmonarias were even earlier last year. I’m wondering if this year’s showing is going to be as good. I think I should have pruned back the old foliage after flowering.
Thank you for all this beauty. I do love hellebores and yours are divine. I have never seen these in my area. All my plants and bulbs are under feet of snow. It is a spirit lifter to see spring flowers so early in England.
Hi Cheryl and welcome to rusty duck.
I do feel for you guys under all that snow, and how soggy it’s going to be when it all melts. But Spring will come and you will still be enjoying your bulbs and hellebores when ours have all faded!
I love your drift of snowdrops – they are so beautiful. I have just bought 100 bulbs in the green so hope to have more to show next year too. I love your little narcissus too – they look as if they are battling the wind with their petals swept back like that.
I should really split the snowdrops and spread them around a bit. I say that every year though. Will this be the one? I’d love to have a similar drift of the tiny narcissus, need to find a cheap source of bulbs, which may be hard!
Indeed Jessica 🙂 success with the below ground bit is good news, just need to sort out the top bit later. Fab blooms!
My garden is going to be a wire jungle the way this is going, above and below ground.
Wonderful to see so many bulbs and flowers blooming. I will be wondering what the voles will do once the snow melts…..or what damage they are already doing.
I’ve discovered we now have voles AND mice. Seeing them together as we did recently there’s quite a difference. I suspect they are pretty much the same when it comes to appetite though. 🙁
Those hellebores are lovely. The sap is starting to rise is’nt it? I guess that there is a downside to sharing your garden with lots of interesting wildlife.
The sap is definitely rising. Roses are sprouting and I need to think about pruning. I was so excited about taking on a garden full of wildlife. Little did I know.
I am ashamed to say that I have not been out in the front garden to see if anything is happening by way of spring growth this year, and everywhere else is still flattened after the run of very cold weather we have recently had. Not to worry, the air is warming up, the birds are revving up their singing, so soon we shall be awash with flowers of all sorts…..I hope! Lovely photos as ever.
Suddenly in the last week or so I’ve felt a lot more optimistic. It really does feel as though Spring is close. I hope so.
Oh, Jessica (and Mike) your garden is looking spectacular right now! The drift of snowdrops is amazing. You must both be pretty pleased with the cages for those bulbs, they seemed to have worked a treat, despite the fact something is now bothering the blooms. Can I suggest blackbirds? I’ve seen them at some of mine.
Liking the new look of the website too, it’s great.
You could well be right, there are blackbirds in the garden. Something is nipping the flowers off at the very base of the bud. It would require a delicate manoeuvre, such as could be achieved with a beak.
I have had both blackbirds and starlings do this, it is very annoying! so wasteful, Frances
It’s infuriating Frances, they don’t want them for food, just discard them.
Love the pretty little narcissus in particular, but everything in the garden looks good. Happy Bloom Day!
Thanks Dorothy. I love it all the more as the critters seem to leave it alone.
Fabulous hellebores. I love your Narcissus too and the little irises. So many lovely things to enjoy.
There’s more to February than I used to think. The start of the gardening season!
That mass of snowdrops knocks my socks off. I love the Hellebores too. Since I finally got one Hellebore I planted 3 years ago to bloom, I ordered a few more but the grower won’t even ship until late March – at the rate our local temperatures are rising, we’ll have summer-like weather by then so I don’t expect blooms this year. It’s lucky I can enjoy photos of yours in the meantime. Happy GBBD!
The one advantage of lower temperatures, I guess, is that hellebores flower well and over quite a long period. They are special to me because they’re really the first of the perennials to get going.
I am so ready for spring, here in the Northeast United States. You have so much in bloom, it’s hard to say which was my favorite. But seeing all the snowdrops in the British blogs makes me want to plant some. Happy GBBD.
You’ve had it so bad again this year, I hope Spring comes soon for you. Seeing the snowdrops gives me hope that winter will soon be over here too. Not my favourite time of year!
Such a gorgeous bit of spring to share…The colors are so amazing.
It is feeling like Spring now, or perhaps it’s just my wishful thinking.
Little treasures of Winter. A garden never really sleeps, does it?
No, as the foliage dies back in late autumn it reveals the new growth waiting to happen. Thank goodness.
That rusty duck photo brought me to your blog, and I am delighted to have discovered it! Your hellebore photos are simply stunning! I miss seeing snowdrops.
Hi Lisa, thanks and welcome to rusty duck.
Snowdrops bring with them huge optimism don’t they, Spring is just around the corner. Could do with some of your winter sun right now!
The Hellebores look wonderful. I have one just outside the front door, and last week as the snow started to melt, great rafts of it slid from the roof and shuttered on top of it. I thought it was done for, but though less upright, is looking magnificent with flowers beginning to open.
They are much hardier than they look. I’ve seen them almost flat on the ground after a really heavy frost yet they pick up again as if nothing happened. The pheasant can’t resist nipping the flowers off and they do seem to take a while to settle down in my heavy clay soil. But if they survive the first year bulk up quite well.
You are so much further on than us! You have cheered me up on a very damp and dreary Monday morning in Berwick!
It’s been much the same here for a lot of the day. But tomorrow is supposed to be sunny… gardening weather!
You are ahead of us – no Pulmonaria here yet. I have had a handful of bulb stems broken off – I thought it might be some kind of larger 4-legged creature, but I am now wondering about mice as the patch of bulbs is right next to a common. Hmmmm….. I may have to start caging bulbs along that border.
I have narrowed it down to mice, squirrels, pheasants, blackbirds, rabbits…. cages are going to be a necessity next year for me!
You’ve got lots of lovely colour.
It’s dotted around that’s the trouble. The snowdrops make a good show because there are so many of them but everything else needs seeking out!
all this gorgeous spring color!!! not a sign of a bud on my hellies….and if my snowdrops are up….and are tucked under the 5-6″ of snow that came down overnight!!! I must be patient…not one of my virtues.
They will be worth the wait. Says she who almost certainly scores even lower on the patience scale.
Interesting to read the behaviour of both four and two legged predators taking off flower buds, the blue-tits here destroy the Mahonia flowers.
Hi Rick and welcome to rusty duck.
Blue tits like camellia flowers too, until the squirrels see them off and then eat the flowers whole. How hard it is to garden with wildlife.
We have primroses, winter aconite and snowdrops but you’re well ahead of us on everything else and your hellebores are gorgeous.
There are some things which must NEVER be purchased when accompanied by husband – hellebores are one of them (I’ll leave the rest to your vivid imagination!)
I shall be doing more plant shopping on line this year. Even Waitrose sell plants now, if that’s not a perfect cover I don’t know what is. It’s amazing how much the cost of his favourite steak has gone up this year isn’t it?
Lovely hellebores (and sweet to have one named after Piet’s wife just after Valentine’s Day. I think having a plant named after you would be such an honour, particularly a beauty like this one).
However, it’s the Narcissi that I really fell for. I remember seeing a great mass of the hooped petticoat ones in grass at the Savill Gardens one spring. They’re just so dainty and yet tough. Now, where can I squeeze some in for next year?
If I could only grow one Narcissus either that or the cyclamineus would be it. But they do need to be grown en masse for effect. If these two succeed I will be planting more.
We have only got one variety of hellebore which is the common lime green one which I love but it doesn’t start flowering until about March. I think that’s because our garden is north facing so everything is always much later. I never cut it back and it’s now a pretty large bush !! Yours are stunning and everything in your garden must be such a welcome sight in grey old February….. enough to put a smile on your face.
Your photographs are STUNNING Jessica. XXXX
Thanks Jackie. The colour may only be in small patches at the moment but it doesn’t half cheer me up when the weather is miserable. I definitely need more of a winter garden.
It’s interesting to see you growing outside the primrose and narcissus that I am flowering in the greenhouse. I remember getting inspired to buy those primrose by the wild primrose that we saw in England in 2008, so I’m guessing that even in England you must be a little ahead of schedule with the primrose. As for the hellebores, it’s next month for us. Enjoy!
You’re right, the primroses are really only just starting. Just the odd one. By next month they will be everywhere. Even in the lawn, much to the annoyance of he who mows.
Gorgeous photos for February. I love your new hellebores – each one so different in appearance, but it’s the primroses I would like to see in the wild up here in the north and feel that Spring is really on the way.
It won’t be long now I hope. Snowdrops and primroses, so simple but conveying so much.
I really like Anja Oudolf- such a lovely colour. We are pretty much in tandem with what is flowering although my pulmonarias are only just beginning to flower and my snowdrops are less spectacular.
The creatures are such a pain, aren’t they? I hope the wire cages work and the little bulbs survive.
As long as they survive having their tops chewed off the bulbs should be OK, they seem to be quite safe in their cages. I never thought I would have to go to such extreme lengths to raise a bulb.
I think Anja might be on my list for next year, I have already acquired another 3 hellebores this year.
Narcissus bulbs are poisonous whereas tulips and crocus aren’t. I think people used to eat tulip bulbs, I am sure they are them in Holland during the war but I may have made that up. The demon badger that plagued my garden the other winter left the narcissus and destroyed the other bulbs. Oh and he left the snowdrops too.
Yes, snowdrops also seem to be safe, judging by how many are coming up in the woodland. I thought the mice would steer clear of alliums, but no. Fritillaries and lilies, gone. It’s so frustrating.
That top Hellebore is beautiful and I am loving your spring colours 🙂
Beautifully sunny day today, I hope I’ll have a few minutes to get outside and get it planted. Thanks Cherie.
Those Hellebores are spectacular. No wonder you couldn’t resist. If they have any pups I’ve a very welcome home here…..x
If I manage to keep them alive Em!
Jessica you have some beautiful little gems in your garden, your new hellebore Anja Oudolf is beautiful, I love your carpet of snowdrops, did you and Mike plant them or previous occupants, so pleased you are succeeding with bulbs, on GQT Sunday someone asked about protecting large seeds from mice and holly leaves were suggested to plant under ground with the seeds, the mice do not like the prickles, Frances
The snowdrops were here when we arrived, there are plenty more too and they are spreading well. The mice don’t seem to like them. I shall try the holly leaf idea. With the prickliest ones I can find. 🙂
🙂
Beautiful Hellebores, beautiful photos
Thank you! I do love hellebores. Can you ever have too many?
Oh look at you with your Pulmonaria and Irises and Primroses in bloom! I am willing mine to bloom with the power of stare! I can’t wait!
I love love love your hellebores – is ‘Anja Oudolf’ any thing to do with Piet or is it just a coincidence. The yellow double is lovely too!
Spring looks as though it is sprung in your garden now Jessica!
Anja is Piet’s wife. Oh to have such a thing of beauty named after you. Spring is supposed to come earlier down here, but I’m not counting my sprouting shoots. Quite yet.
Oooh, that’s a lovely hellebore, looks a bit like my picotee. I also have a white double speckled exactly like your yellow, I bought a few years ago, I scattered seeds from it last summer and hope it will have babies all around the hellebore area, it is so lovely!
And yes, you have a lot to drool over, that area of snowdrops is exactly the effect I hope to get, once mine has had time to spread – in 10 years’ time or so maybe??
Happy GBBD – soon it’s spring!
Good luck with your hellebore seeds, I hope they come to something, although they do take a while. I planted my new ones out yesterday, plenty of space between them so they can clump up and hopefully produce babies too!
Goodness, Iris already? The Hellebores are beautiful, I can see why you were tempted.
The little Iris reticulata are quite early. Hellebores would be good for your shady areas, although not for cutting. The flowers droop very quickly in a vase.
I love Anja Oudolf and Penny’s pink, what lovely choices! I love that carpet of snowdrops too. I do hope your blog problems have now been resolved, it’s so fristrating when everything crashes isn’t it.xxx
Very frustrating. And not knowing much about these things I feel totally powerless!
Fascinating to see how much further on you are than we are up here. We have loads of snowdrops and hellebores but no sign yet of flowers on the daffodils and the pulmonaria is only just beginning to bud, no colour just yet.