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February 2004

Helleborus Atrorubens?

The reddish Helleborus hybrid we have, is in full bloom and show no signs of letting up. The other Helleborus we HAD, foetidus , seems to have bitten the dust. After sporting lots of new green growth in November, it has steadily gone downhill and it's now to the point were I should be taking the remains out; it looks real sad!

Dicentra Spectabilis AlbaThis white form of Dicentra spectabilis, alba, has been a reliable performer for us over the past couple of years, though it hasn't grown to anywhere near the size of the more common pink and white form, which we have had to cut IT back repeatedly because it is such a vigorous grower.

These ones here are planted in the shade of one of our camellias.

Iris ReticulataThe very earliest of the small Iris' we see is the little yellow form, this blue form of Iris reticulata 'Harmony' is the one we have the most of in various parts of the yard.

The little yellow one first opened up on the 13th. It's unusual in that the petals on this yellow form just do not open up the present the same kind of face the blue variety does.

Yellow Iris

CrocusThis Crocus hybrid is called 'Prins Claus', after the Dutch prins of the same name, late husband of HRH Queen Beatrix.

Crocus and daffodils

Here we have a lovely contrast between the purple of these two varieties and the yellow of the miniature narcissi in the background. Just a few more days now and we'll see the "Sea of Purple" or "Purple Haze of Spring" again in our side bed adjoining our neighbour's and our driveways.

greenhouse

We have added a temporary greenhouse to our bag of tricks. We were snooping through Crappy Tire's gardening section one day and saw this being promoted as a tomato greenhouse and we took one look at it and said "There is no reason we cannot use this as a regular greenhouse to help us with transplants and seeds." So, here it is. Pieter built a rack out of scrap lumber and we have seed trays with the usual suspects: marigolds, basil, lavender, lobelia etc. and we finally have the proper setting to germinate those Helleborus seeds we have had for almost a year.

In addition the sheltered space is being used for establishing root divisions of various Hostas, Dicentra, Echinacea and Rudbeckia.