In article , "madgard"
wrote:

WOO HOO!!! I have HELLEBORE BUDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
( kinda makes my hair raise up, ya know?)
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee zone 6b, Sunset zone 36

Three of my four already have big blooms, only the "Rose Madder" is "mere"
buds right now, though of course even the buds are gorgeous. I was not
always a fan of these but their behavior in the garden is just too
interesting. I'd some while back given three of the four webpages of their
own, but this week added a page for the fourth, "Heronswood Yellow":
http://www.paghat.com/helleboreyellow.html

I've already clipped off most of last year's leaves so they're all
presently are mainly just flowers & buds all by themselves, but new leaves
are fast arriving & they should all be nice & bushy again soon. I try to
save the old leaves as long as possible but they do slowly get homely &
need to go.

The newest thing blooming is the Iris reticulata -- suddenly today like
fast-magic the little buds are completely formed flowers. I'd planted the
bulblets on a rockery ledge to peak from behind a chunk of granite --
which the bulbs pushed off the ledge!

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/