After a lazy Christmas and New Year break, I am back to join Cathy at Rambling in the Garden with a Monday vase. 🙂
Although our winter has been very mild (and wet!) there was little to pick today apart from some pretty white Hellebores from a patio pot and some greenery from the rockery. Still, I am glad to find anything!
The garden is looking rather brown and messy right now with no snow and hardly any frosts, and it is far too muddy to do any tidying up. I think I prefer frost and snow to this. But there is still time for our winter to show its darker side – as it is in North America at the moment – I hope all the gardeners there are staying indoors in the warm too!
Indoors are, after all, other delights at this time of year such as candles, hot spicy tea, comfort food…. and Hippeastrums!
This one is called ‘Rapido’ and has seven small flowers on one stem. A second bud is about to open too, so this has been another success after the lovely Lady Jane did so well in December. Unlike Cathy, I have not cut any of the stems so far, but it may be necessary with this one below:
I am certain that at that angle Hippeastrum ‘Red Peacock’ will not be able to remain upright once it opens… (The pinky peach coloured Hippeastrum flower on the left is the last of Lady Jane).
Wherever you are, and whatever your weather, I do hope you can find something of beauty today to either simply regard, or to put in a vase and share with us. Now go and visit our host Cathy to admire her beautiful ruby red Hamamelis flowers.
Have a good week!
Words and Herbs 
Love the whole post but particularly the piece of curved glass behind your vase – beautiful.
Thanks Sandra! I love that glass picture too! 🙂
oh those sweet little hellebores. I can’t wait until mine are blooming. The poor things are flattened by snow and frost. Although today it rained. We have just emerged from a record low temperatures cycle. Winter can be cruel. Not a bloom to share at my house. I have a few orchids with buds but nothing will open it seems. Happy IAVOM.
Yes, it is the same here, and only these new plants put in patio containers in November are flowering. I just did a tour of the garden (very squelchy underfoot!) and there are no signs of even buds on my hellebores in the ground. 😦
Pretty as always! I’m also intrigued by the curved glass, Cathy, which looks like a photo of a bluebell wood printed on glass. Did you get it for xmas? Lots of rain and mud here too, I’ve no energy at all to do anything in the garden. So it’s all comfort food, yogi tea, books etc. at the moment which is nice and welcome too. Thanks for your inspirational, special posts throughout 2017. Here’s to another year, may it be good to you! 🙂
Hi Annette. It is a painting on glass, or ‘fused’ glass, which was a gift from my parents a few years ago. 🙂 Thanks go to you too, Annette, for sharing your beautiful photos and knowledge over the past year. 2018 is bound to be another interesting year!
My eye too was caught by your piece of glass…here too so much rain…but I know for sure it won’t be long before plants spring into action,
Yes, at least the rain is good for the spring plants. A few snowdrop shoots are appearing, but it can take ages for them to open so I am not overly optimistic!
Love the beautiful Hellebores Cathy–they look so fresh and delicate. And your ‘Rapido’ is beautifully ambitious, a real over-achiever. Gorgeous. Sending you happy thoughts and wishes for perfect gardening weather!
Thanks Susie. I am itching to go out and do some gardening but is still very muddy so I shall get on with a crochet project instead! 😉
Lovely to have the hellebore blooms – none here yet- and that green glass vase shows them off beautifully. And I love the curved glass behind it too so do tell us more about it. Don’t you just love it when your hippeastrums go over the top with the number of blooms on one stem? Thanks for sharing
I especially love it when the Hippeastrums open up really slowly, like these all have this year. This red one was just starting to unfurl on Christmas Day, and the seventh flower opened this Monday. The one at a strange angle may be the turning point for me and will be cut… we will see!
I have got 3 Apple Blossom (all from Aldi!) planted in one pot which now have 4 spikes between them but I am not sure yet if I will cut them when the time comes. Mind you, one is opening and it looks a bit too red to be AB…
How nice that it is Hellebore time again. I do like them even though they don’t do at all well here, I’d like to get some to grow in pots so they can be well watered and put in the shade in summer. I too am intrigued by the curved glass pictures. Do tell us about them.
My hellebores struggle a bit if we have a dry summer, but once established they seem to flower well most years. This one will go in the ground in spring and will probably flower a lot later too. The curved picture is a fused glass painting. I am afraid I can’t find the note that came with it about the artist, but my parents bought it for me at a gallery on the Norfolk coast a few years ago. It is a bluebell wood, which has special memories for me. 🙂
I love bluebell woods too. It was very special that my MIL’s birthday was at the end of April and the bluebells were usually flowering when we went to visit her.
My parents live quite close to Coton Manor in Northants and their bluebell wood is magical. But I also remember childhood walks in nearby woods where we just couldn’t resist picking armfuls of them even though we knew they would be wilted before we got home. Those woods are now private and half the size they once were. Sigh. I do miss bluebell woods!
One of my strongest memories is of picked no bluebells to bring home. Once a warden took them all from us and wrapped then in half – I was shocked, angry and scared all at once.
Finding flowers in the garden is still a long way away for us in the upper Midwest. We’re suddenly having a week of above normal temps after weeks of way below normal. But little snow cover so I am trying not to worry about the garden. Can’t wait to have Hellebores to bring indoors like your lovely flowers.
Our weather is unusually mild right now too Linda. But we still haven’t had a cold snap. I am secretly hoping we might skip winter and get an early spring… like in February?! 😉
Such a refreshing breath of spring during the gloom of winter!
Thanks Peter. These hellebores were flowering when I potted them up in November, and are sheltered near the house, so I can enjoy them until it gets really frosty… unless winter gives us a miss this year!
What a prolific Hippeastrum ‘Rapido’ is – a beauty! Our bitter cold spell broke today, at last!
Sorry for the late reply…. Just found this comment in my spam folder Eliza! Rapido is still going strong with a third bud opening. 🙂
Wow, 3 buds, a happy surprise! And a reminder to check my spam, too.
To find anything outside is a treat….too much snow on the ground for months here for anything to bloom outside for a while….but late planted indoor bulbs will give me some color soon. Lovely flowers.
That is why I love the Amaryllis, as they guarantee some winter blooms! 🙂
Brown is rarely a gardener’s favorite color. I hope you get more of the beautiful, white, fluffy snow you’re craving. I always love the white curtains in your photos, Cathy. They’re charming.
Oh, thanks Alys! 🙂 Snow would be nice… spring might be nicer… 😉
Indeed! I can’t argue with that logic. 😉
Cathy your Hellebores are beautiful, especially white. I love the vase. The Hippeastros “Rapido” with its bright red color is beautiful. A friend who lives next to the country house told me that they were isolated by the snow and with -7ºC for the day. Here in Madrid it is expected that tomorrow we will be at -6 Centigrades: something that has never happened. And raining. Have a good week too. Keep the heat. Greetings from Margarita.
Oh, that must be unusually cold for your part of the world Margarita. And with snow too! Stay in the warm and dry!
It is certainly challenging to find something but these are very fresh and bright. Amazing too that they flower in the gloomiest of times. Thanks for the reminder to enjoy the winter comforts, I will focus on that and not on the mud.
I also find it amazing that these flowers love to bloom when light is at its lowest! I hope it dries up for us all soon Alison. 🙂
Beautiful hellebores Cathy – I just can’t get enough of them. Ours are just emerging from the ground at the moment.
How lovely! Mine in the ground need a bit longer, but if it stays this mild they might be early. These ones I have in pots were probably cultivated to flower for Christmas, which is nice too!
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🙂 So glad you joined in!
Me too!
Wow! I love seeing Hellebores, one of my favorites. The Rapido Amaryllis is amazing. I have some Amaryllis in the garden that only make foliage..
I wonder if the cold spell you had will tempt them to bud this year?!
That would be great, we will soon see. There is a Coral Amaryllis that looks like a butterfly type that is commonly grown in gardens around here. I think it is a passalong, one day I will find one at a garage sale.
I planted one of my bulbs out one year and it flowered in August, but then rotted before I thought to bring it indoors again!
Possibly the only advantage to gardening on sugar sand, nothing ever rots!
I keep checking my Hellebores for signs of blooms but so far no luck. Seeing yours gives me a boost while I wait.
I think gardeners are the most patient of people. Hope the wait isn’t too long Ricki!
I love those hellebores and the Hippeastrums are definitely worth the cost of the bulbs. My Hippeastrum, all planted outside, have yet to bloom but you’ve whetted my appetite for growing some inside next year so I can enjoy them on an earlier schedule.
I can recommend having them indoors Kris. I usually have three or four, in the hope that they will keep me in flowers for two or three months. So far so good, the first one opened at the end of November and I have two more unopened buds to go! 🙂
The Amaryllis look good and like you I am enjoying them with scented candles. There are no flowers on my hellebores yet but I enjoyed seeing yours.
My garden is usually white and hard as iron in January, but with our mild temperatures this year I may see some hellbores in the ground flowering soon as well as these potted ones. 🙂
The weather patterns have definitely shifted. Still, early hellebores have got to be a good thing
Hope that you enjoyed your seasonal break Cathy. That curved glass caught my eye too and you must tell us more 🙂 Hellebores deserve an award for flowering in the bleakest of times and yours is a beauty. As you say there is little in the way of flower pickings at this time of year but winter does offer some pleasures. I’m trying to resist the comfort foods though but indulging in much enjoyable reading.
Hi Anna. The curved picture is a fused glass painting of a bluebell wood. My parents gave it to me a few years ago and when I was in Blakeney in Norfolk last autumn there were several others by that artist on display in a gallery. I can’t remember her name, but they are all beautiful. 🙂
If we don’t have flowers we can enjoy them on blogs, thanks for sharing Cathy
Absolutely. 🙂 Hopefully another Hippeastrum will be in bloom by next Monday!
These hellebores niger are a wonder and yours look so well in that vase!
Thanks Anca! 🙂
The Rapido is stunning and would make me forget about the brown outdoors.
It certainly does help brighten up the winter here! 😉
The hellebores are lovely but what really intrigues me is the painted glass behind the vase. It’s beautiful!
Thanks. The curved glass painting depicts a bluebell wood. 🙂
Quite beautiful! I love that pure white Hellebore.
Me too. Any flower in January gets the thumbs up from me! 😉