Hellbore Hollow-Vineyard shade garden bloom time late winter early spring

Hellebore Hollow Shade Garden

Planning interesting and unusual pardens is an ongoing project . One first  looks at the natural site and figures ways to extenuate it's most natural strong points.  I had a large amount of young hellebores given to me by their breeder the most   energetic interesting knowledgable Barry Glick of Sunshine farms in Resnick West Virginia.  Barry developed the hellborus orientalis variety and many many improvements since. In fact he has developed some double upfacine hellbores that are frankly stellar to the point you salivate.  Now Barry is an interesting cat imagine a brilliant botanist (the latin nomenclatures are flying) mix in  a bit of jewish east cost agression , yenta, and work ethic, enthusiasm for anything once,  libidinism, and  odd mix of Willy Wonka and jerry garcia on sunshine blotter and you have somewhat of an idea of Barry Glick.  Hellebores a fabulous winter blooming (jan-March depending on temp) that like a somewhat shady spot. My hellebores have gone from tens to hundreds of thousands and they are a great sight in late winter early spring when everything else looks rather grey and desolate.   with colors of purple, pink, green yellow, black, and red   which  provide an early treat for the voracious honey bees and  dark green leathery leaves. I have left mine reseed at random so their offspring is  a delicious unruly mix. To breed properly  one polinates the chosen flower with a pollen filled brush from the chosen father and covers the flower with a bag so no other unworthy suitors will approach it and taint the specific quality genepool you are hoping to replicate and expand upon (also it's easier to gather the seeds).  I have generally left them to reproduction of fate a la nature and so my expanding hellebore hollow is a grand variety. I chose a spot under several large hanging maples near the bank of a the lovely swamp. The drainage is pretty good because the hilled mounds around the trees are higher than the edge of the swamp.  Now hellebores generally prefer a more basic ph soil but they seem to do quite well in my south jersey extremely acidic location and i've never limed it. Soon the shade garden will start to pop with hundreds of others shade lovers  like ostrich and cinamon ferns (Osmunda cinnamomea)  betwixt numerous varied hostas, astilbe,  and various self seeding water iris 168 stevens st Willow Creek Farm and Winery. Hellebores have been used as a pharmaceutical garden base for centuries and will be included in my jardin de la morte.