Even though I’ve been gardening since I was a kid, a plant I’ve never heard of will suddenly emerge in my life and then seem like it is everywhere. This just happened with hellebore. I noticed it first, on all things, Farmville, when it was part of the special St. Patrick’s Day activities there. First of all, the name sounds horrendous, but since “growing” it on Farmville yielded good money I put in a few virtual crops. Next, when I was walking home on a gray day a few weeks ago I noticed a pretty blooming plant with small greenish flowers. (This was when almost nothing was blooming.) It all came together when I came across an article by the Philadelphia Gardening Examiner. (Nice photos in that article.)
I presume their association with St. Patrick’s day is not only due to the greenish flowers but also due to the bloom time. Like with Bells of Ireland, their green color is because the “flowers” are actually sepal petals. These are the normally small petals that are at the bases of flowers. Apparently hellebores are in the Ranunculaceae family. Some types are evergreen.
I photographed these pinkish-purple hellebores up in Roland Park. Trust them to have the fancier version up there.
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