Planting Hellebores by Moonlight

Somehow just because I live in Kentucky I'm supposed to be crazy about college basketball -- specifically UofL and UofK basketball. Truth be told, I can only take it in small doses. Last month Lynn and Walt invited us to a Louisville game in the YUM! Center and that was exciting. And I'm happy to watch the last few minutes of a particularly close game, but I'm less than thrilled to be subjected to hours and hours of NCAA Division I games -- 64 teams worth. So last night when the Wisconsin/Syracuse game was just getting underway and the sun was just starting to go down, I left Ed in his comfy chair with the remote control firmly in his hand and headed out to my garden.

Earlier in the day a big box from White Flower Farm was delivered to our front door. It contained a dozen hellebore plants (along with some blueberry, raspberry, blackberry and current bushes). The weather forecast for the next two days called for heavy rain so I decided this was my chance to get at least the hellebores into the ground.

As you know, I've been focusing on my vegetable garden and have given little thought to planting perennials. When Maggie was visiting last week she picked up the catalog from White Flower Farm and started marking all the plants that I just "had to have." Among them were some helleborus x hybridus -- otherwise known to me as Lenten Rose. My friend Jackie has some of in her garden and I'm always charmed to see these beautiful flowers blooming, long before anything else wakes up in her garden. Jackie's feature pale green or white sepals that last well into summer. The ones I ordered are a "winter thrillers" mix featuring flowers that measure 3 inches across and range from green and pink to burgundy and white.

This hybrid mix is closely related to the Helleborus niger, commonly called the Christmas Rose. It gets its name from an old legend that it sprouted in the snow from the tears of a young girl who had no gift to give the Christ child in Bethlehem. I like this story.

Anyway, I knew my time was short for getting these plants in the ground. The sun was barely visible above the horizon when I got started and the moon was well on its way up into the sky when I finished. Because they like shade, and because I haven't given much thought to where I want to ultimately plant perennials, I chose to tuck these plants in behind the Quick Fire Hydrangeas that run along the side of the cottage. Just as I was finishing I heard the coyotes start to howl and decided it was time to head back inside -- just in time to see Wisconsin lose (darn) to Syracuse by one point.