Helleborus Shopping
There are times when nothing but a little bit of retail therapy will do. January was a miserable, gloomy month, and February didn’t get off to a much better start.
On Friday morning last week, I’d had enough, and headed out to one of our nearby garden centres. I had Hellebores in mind. I’ve looked at hordes of beautiful Hellebore images on Twitter feeds for the past week or two, and knew that I had to give them a second chance in my garden.
I’ve tried growing Hellebores in the past, but by the following season, they’ve vanished. Where to and why I’ll never know. But this time around, they’re going into pots! Cunning solution. Then I can keep an eye on them – and when they produce some awesome blooms, I can lift the pots up to table height, rather than bend down to their level to take their winter portraits.
When I arrived at the village Garden Centre, it was 10am, raining, and there was little light in the sky, but the large car park was full. I wondered if there was a special event on. But no, it was simply that the restaurant was packed with happy folk enjoying morning coffee – with plenty of luscious-looking cakes on display too.
But I was on the hunt for Hellebores, and no amount of cream or chocolate-filled cakes were going to tempt me from my mission.
Two young men were busy filling shelves, and the plant area was quiet. I picked two Hellebores from the selection, and I’m thinking about ordering one or two doubles (more likely just one – they’re expensive aren’t they!) from an online retailer in varieties that I particularly like. But these two are pretty, and I love them already.
My Six on Saturday
I find it hard to resist anything that sports the name ‘Apple Blossom’ so when these lovely little Primulas caught my eye, I had to buy a few to cheer up the garden and help lift the winter gloom.
Six on Saturday is like a weekly journal. Take six photographs and post them to Twitter. You can get all the details from The Propagator who kindly set it all up. If you want to join in and see what everyone else is doing in the garden, just follow that link!
All photographs copyright of Catherine Wood unless otherwise stated.
Notes From My Garden 
Yes, sometimes you just have to get out with the flowers and the folks to lift your mood! I aways say I’m going just to look and then the plants speak to me and I have to bring one or two home! Your post looks lovely on my end!
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Plant temptation is all around the moment you enter a garden centre! Thanks for confirming the blog posts are showing as they should – always a concern when you publish a new blog. 🙂
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You might want to add a Gravatar so you look good when we post you on our sights!
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You’re right. I need to update my TW profile pic too. Hairdresser appointment scheduled for Thursday – so I’ll aim for a new photo after that. 😂
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I love all of them but woodland walk has to be a favorite, may I ask which camera you use the photos are so good.
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Thanks. 🙂
I’m using a Fuji X-T30 which I just bought after Christmas. It’s a smaller version of the T3, and good for my small hands.
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Beautiful photographs and you chose some great hellebores there. I think Cheryl is my favourite. I wonder why they disappear in the garden? Mysterious and infuriating.
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Thanks for your comments, Katharine. I’ve never managed to fully understand why some plants just disappear from the garden. Perhaps the Hellebores simply didn’t do too well in the clay soil. I’ve lost several plants over the years, including a lovely, but still small, Sorbaria sem. Gone never to be seen again.
But I do have a husband who doesn’t know a weed from a plant. Perhaps there’s an answer there… 😁
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Very pretty hellebores. I love the girls’ name series. I have rachel and emma, my youngest daughter’s names. We also have the Gold Collection which are superb and flower all winter. Thanks for sharing your six photos.
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I hadn’t heard of the Gold Collection, but Google to the rescue. The three plants look fantastic – if I’m right – they are a collection of Christmas Rose, Snow Rose and Lenten Rose varieties. My notebook is beginning to bulge with all the plants I’m learning about! Thanks for your comment.
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There’s nothing quite like indulging in some retail horticultural therapy apart from book purchases. Great photos Catherine. I hoped to locate ‘Cheryl’s Shine’ on my latest garden centre trip but it wasn’t to be. Maybe soon 😃
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My sisters & I always arrange our get-together lunches at various garden centres, and I do the same with friends – so there’s a lot of horti-therapy goes on!
I hope you find ‘Cheryl’s Shine’ before too long.
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I have been plant-sober for a couple of months now. I will likely fall off the wagon once spring hits! My primrose flowers are all getting munched, slugs I assume. Annoying…
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Plant-sober. 😂 Haven’t heard that expression before, but I think it sums the situation up nicely. I’ve no doubt you’ll be first in line at the garden centre when spring arrives. Happy shopping.
Yes, most annoying when slugs make a meal of your plants, especially at this time of the year when every plant is precious. The nasty little things have only left stalks on 10 of my wallflowers, I’m just hoping they don’t move on to eat the rest in other areas.
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I don’t count seeds or cuttings, obviously. Those are homebrew, if i extend the analogy…
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😂
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