Another Hellebore

Day 147: Perhaps I should walk around my yard more often. It seems I was mistaken when I said my other Hellebore wasn't in bloom yet. It's in a shady spot, and I have a tendency not to notice it because it's not very large yet. Unlike the one in my flower bed, its leaves have lighter coloured veins, making them appear almost mottled. I've been trying for some time now to establish a "shade garden" of Hellebores, Hostas and Maidenhair Ferns under Big Doug. It's coming along at a turtle's pace. I either need to buy more plants (not likely to happen) or hit my botany partners up for more starts. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Joe!

A Hearty Welcome To May

Day 204: Who doesn't love Bleeding Hearts? When I first moved into my home thirty years ago, I planted a commercial cultivar, Asian Bleeding-Heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis, formerly Dicentra spectabilis), not realizing that the stems were extremely fragile. Unfortunately, I had put it in a bad spot and invariably broke some portion of it almost every time I walked by. It survived this mistreatment for couple of years, but eventually failed to return. Lesson learned, I waited until I had created a more protected bed for a new one which, I am happy to say, is thriving between other shade-loving plants. Lamprocapnos bears much larger and richly coloured hearts than our Pacific Bleeding-Heart (a sub-species), a show-piece in the early spring shade garden.