Begonias (Inside) and Hellebores (In & Out) to Get Us Through the Tail End of Winter

Twenty-eight days until the spring equinox...if you're counting... at the moment a vase of hellebores in the kitchen and some leafy begonias are giving me hope I can last until the days are longer, the soil warmer, and the sun climbs higher in the sky.

I adore autumn as the light fades and the garden dies down, crave the quiet of deep winter...it's just this rag-tag tail end of the season that gets to me.

In the meantime....the hellebore hybrids are opening their pretty flowers; here's a mix of cream, darkest purple and blush pink mixed with a scrap of striped hebe and some euphorbia...

The deep, darkest hellebores with those filaments of palest yellow anthers are so dramatic, aren't they? And most effective cut and brought into the house where you can admire them close up, for they   tend to disappear in the winter garden...

I bought a couple of begonias at the Portland garden show, to keep on a bright, cool windowsill until the weather warms, then plant outside in pots for summer. I know they're Victorian favorites, but they look modern to me, with their unusual shapes, thick, patterned leaves, and a presence that's more fauna than flora...

The top one is Begonia rhizomatous 'Escargot' - an apt name for the snail-swirled leaves. The chartreuse one below it is a rex begonia named 'Shadow King Green Envy'...both from N & M Herb Nursery....then a close-up of 'Escargot' - see what I mean about the creature-like appeal?? It could be an O'Keeffee in its perfection of stripe, sumptousness of texture, tiny hairs on the leaf margins, and elegant swirliness...

Comments

[Scott Weber]

OMG...those spiral leaves on the Begonias are AMAZING!

[DariaW]

Love your "this rag-tag tail end of the season." May I put in a good word for a few plants that get me over the hump at this time of year? Snowdrops look lovely with hellebores, are very amendable to dividing, which I do before, during, and after blooming, and have presentable foliage after. It may just be viola odorata, but it's a violet I inherited when we bought our house and it's a mainstay groundcover for me, one of it's virtues being that, starting in late October, it blooms sporadically during the winter, but in February goes into high gear. Plus, it's evergreen, tidy year round, sun or shade, and without supplemental summer watering. Underplanted with snowdrops and hellebores it makes for a charming vignette. And, if you can get it, the mottled leaves of Trillium kurabayashii, and it's very long lasting wine colored flowers, which sometimes show as early as Valentine's Day are a treasure at this time before real spring.

[valerie Easton]

Thanks, Daria, for your list - since winter seems to be continuing its grip, trillium, violets (not too invasive? They sure can be....) and snowdrops really help us make it through 'til narcissus, fritillaria and tulips...I have a bunch of buttercream-colored little crocus growing up out of black mondo grass which is cheering me up this morning...
Val

[DariaW]

These violets are well behaved. They spread a little by runners and seeds but that's the nature of ground covers, to some extent, isn't it? I'm happy for any surplus (I have a big garden and a rental property), but if I had a small garden, I'd still want them there. They also tolerate wind well.