Hellebores as cut flowers

Hellebores are nice to have in the garden.

• Deer, rabbits and ground hogs don't eat them.
• They grow well in partial shade.
• The flowers persist for weeks (though the color becomes a bit duller).
• They are as early as daffodils but don't look like spring bulbs.  
• The foliage is attractive and evergreen.  
• They are reliably hardy and live a long time

Hellebores used to be fairly hard to find but have recently appeared at big box stores like Lowe's and Home Depot.  Many of the newer ones are double but the singles are just as pretty and cheaper.

They also make good cut flowers and will look good in a vase for at least a week.

They sometimes don't take up water well after cutting.  The flowers in the above picture were cut last night and the red one on the lower right is having this problem.  It sometimes helps (except when it doesn't) to put them into hot tap water and let it cool.

Signs of Spring - Daffodils and a Hellebore

The weather has been so nice for the past few days that I've been busy working outside and have not had time to write anything. It is colder today so I'm back at the computer.

My first daffodils opened yesterday, April 8th. I don't grow any dwarf ones which bloom even earlier, but of the trumpet daffodils, the first one for me is always 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation'.

There is nothing special about this daffodil other than it being the first one out of the gate in spring and I guess that alone makes it fairly special.

Besides the daffodil, I also have a Hellebore niger blooming really well.

I will write more about hellebores another time, but will mention that one of the things I like about them is that they do not grow from a bulb but still bloom really early when mostly only bulbs are flowering.