The trials and tribulations of a plant lover.
By fractal_cat
14 comments
I was all set to jot down a few notes about Hellebore ericsmithii. But it all went wrong.
The plant in question opened its first couple of flowers a couple of weeks ago. Great joy all round. They (the flowers) stood tall and ..upright! Walking past and each flower is visible, no need to stoop and lift them to see the beauty within.
I have already noted in various press issues that this variety is proving very popular. And I can see why.
Imagine my consternation when the snow fell, covering poor old Eric’ with about eighteen inches. – Where it sits in the garden allowed the wind to swirl a snowdrift into place right over the top!
I needn’t have worried. The snow, as many of you will know, lasted only a short time and it vanished overnight.
Here it is the day after the snow disappeared.
Anyhow… I was going to mention various other tit-bits of information about the growing of, the beauty of, etc. But fate got in the way.
Doggie needed a walk and we found that we needed some more milk; The suggestion that if we drove into town, picked up the milk then, if we take the back way home we could walk the dog at Beechenhurst (where tea is available) and then drop into Pygmy Pinetum. (Our local garden centre/nurseries)
And thus, it happened just that way.
The plan was merely to browse. But as always in these instances, there is always ..something.
In this case it was Cyclamen coum. They had trays of them. Each tray held a dozen pots and each pot held a plant that was flowering its socks off!
I was dazzled. Seduced.
And here is the reason why …
Less than half the flowers can be seen in this one…
Again, only a fraction of the flowers…
They are planted now. They sit well in the ground, accompanied by H.ericsmithii. I look forward to a long and happy union.
4 Feb, 2013
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Comments
What a beautiful Hellebore, I so envy people who can grow them. I have tried several times, without success :(
I'm sure the Cyclamen and Eric will be very happy together!
4 Feb, 2013
Those will make a lovely partnership I'm sure!
Bought this hellebore a while back, I haven't decided where to plant it yet and flowers not opening yet, but just look at all those buds you've got though.
4 Feb, 2013
Now I`m envious, I cannot get Cyclamens going here at all, saying that it took years to succeed with my Hellebores and now they are romping away so perhaps now is the time to try again, lol....I have xmas vouchers shouting at me.....
4 Feb, 2013
Love all cyclamen but coum is particularly welcome at this time of year.
4 Feb, 2013
Lovely plants. I'm waiting a couple of weeks for the mixture in our local nursery to open their flowers so I can choose. My Coum are showing no sign of flowering yet.
Enjoy!
4 Feb, 2013
We made another visit to the nursery today...
This time a pot of Anemone nemorosa, crammed full of lovely rootlets caught my eye.
4 Feb, 2013
What a fabulous Hellebore! My latest one seems to be in the ericsmithii family, so I hope it holds its flowers up like yours. I'm a sucker for cyclamen, too. I'm trying to get them established amongst snowdrops.
7 Feb, 2013
It was the Pinetum Meadowland.
8 Feb, 2013
Spritz - Patience is the only thing. A couple of years and they (Hellebore and Cyclamen) can make themselves known in a garden. And don't be afraid of them, if you think that they might look better somewhere else then move them about.
8 Feb, 2013
The problem there is that the roots of the ash tree are just at the surface - it's really hard to find a deep enough 'pocket' of soil to plant them in. Nil desperandum - they might seed themselves like the snowdrops do! :-)
9 Feb, 2013
Great photos!!
22 Feb, 2013
i'm not sure what cyclamen i have in my pots but they're the scented kind and have been with me for the past 10 years and they self-seed so readily. that's one way of growing these if you can't grow these in the ground.
21 Mar, 2013
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now that is a good buy.
the hellebore is lovely too.
i enjoy trips like that. i went on a bike ride last weekend [tandem in the van until the meeting point at a garden centre [yippee] but you had to go through to get to the toilets] as i was a good girl and did 12 miles my OH treated me to a couple of plants.
4 Feb, 2013