Midwinter blues-banishing: Hellebores

       I have been looking at photographs of my garden to try to banish the mid-winter blaghs. (20 cm. of snow yesterday. At least it's bright, and the house is cosy, but we're severely lacking in colour.) I have ordered flower seeds, and am trying to hold myself back from planting them too soon. I also scored big time at Christmas, so am looking into fruit trees - Whiffletree Nursery has an amazing selection. And I'm also going to Cornhill - when they open! But this is all in the future.
           I'm on a few garden groups on FB, and the British gardeners are posting lots of photos of their blooming hellebores, so I decided to post some of last year's photos of my oldest one, and inventory my recent plants. In a few years I'll have many.
               The very first one I bought was at Island Pride Nursery in Wood Islands, long ago - maybe 2011? It didn't bloom the first year, and the second year it was eaten by slugs, so I waited a long time for the first bloom. I think it is called 'single burgundy'. I'm just guessing, there was no specific name on the tag when I bought it.

Here it is, emerging from the earth, looking slimy and pitiful amongst all the winter debris. Date: April 7, 2017.

Then it starts to look more like a flower, though still small, and no doubt tasty to slugs. I don't put out slug killer, but I keep a close eye on its vicinity. I will stomp them without mercy! I don't cut off the last year's leaves until it is properly blooming.
Date: April 9, 2017.

Now it's pushing its head up, although it looks like it's been hit by frost a bit. However, the buds are looking really promising. and there's a second point of emergence! Hurrah! Spread all you want, little Burgundy.
Date: April 12, 2017.

And now, here we are, fully out. There are many more blooms than I first suspected, I think I counted 24 or so in all. Date: April 24, 2017.

        I visited Humber Nursery in 2013, and bought another hellebore, this one is a double burgundy called 'Amethyst Gem', part of the Winter Jewels strain, according to the label. It's in the west garden, and has bloomed a couple of times, not recently. I mulched there really viciously and things have been slow to come back. Later in 2013 I bought two locally (can't remember where!) and they are 'Blue Lady' (another single burgundy) and 'Pink Lady' which has red freckles on a pinkish background. These latter two have never bloomed. I may have to dig them all up and move them to somewhere more rich and suitable, soil-wise. They are all now in the same location, near the dwarf Korean lilacs.

            These three I bought at Van Kampens in the spring of 2017 - potted up, three to a pot, for $9.99 each. I gave two of each away, and kept one - the top is 'True Love', next is 'French Kiss' and the bottom one is 'Rio Carnival'. I went back some time later and they still had a few, so I got another pot of 'French Kiss'. All of these are planted in the edge of the woodland garden, and I'm not expecting blooms anytime soon. But they're so lovely I feel I should just keep them in a pot, so as to have them early. Apparently 'True Love' is in the Wedding Party series, while the other two are from the Honeymoon series. Connected, obviously.
             And then of course, as previously mentioned, I scored big in the hellebore department at the Veseys sale in the fall and got, I think, nine new ones, including 'Dark and Handsome', 'Blushing Bride', 'Confetti Cake' and 'Flower Girl'. (They didn't have labels so I'm not sure which was which. I tried for two of each.) These are all planted up beside the path to the west of the white lilacs. These are all from the Wedding Party series, and there are quite a few more of that series.
The photo of the 'Burgundy' at the top was taken May 10. Still going strong. The black one beside it is 'New York Night', several of which I planted in 2015. This was its first bloom. 'New York Night' is from the Honeymoon series too. There are lots of good photos on the internet, so I shouldn't have any problems identifying them, when they finally come out!