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February has brought the opening of hellebore flowers in my garden. Along with a scattering of snowdrops, they’re the first of the year’s flowers. (Although there are still pink flowers on the viburnum ‘Dawn’ and yellow ones on the winter-flowering jasmine. But they’ve been around for quite a while now.)
It’s a cheering sight to see something pretty at last, after a rather wet and muddy winter. And now I have something that makes me want to be outside in the garden with my camera…or else indoors in my little studio, as with the flower below. I reckon that I can promise that there will be more hellebore photographs here very soon!
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
You went big for white backgrounds in these two.
I’m surprised to hear so many flowers are blooming in February so far north.
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We do have some winter-flowering shrubs and plants that are tough enough to cope with winter weather. Hellebores are pretty tough too and there’s one – Helleborus niger, the ‘Christmas Rose’ – that flowers very early, even in January. The white background/indoor photography is a comfortable choice when the ground is wet and muddy around the plants! 🙂
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A welcome sight indeed. The first hellebore of the season. I must check to see if mine is in flower. I have been dashing through my garden to get inside for weeks. Looking forward to seeing your next lot of flowers.
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It feels as if the worst of winter could be over when you start seeing some new flowers around. (But hoping that I’m not tempting fate to send us another ‘Beast from the East’ by saying that!) We’ve had a short spell of good gardening weather here but the rain will be back tomorrow…bleh!
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They are beauties…well done, Ann!
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Thank you Indira! I feel lucky to be able to grow these in my garden! 🙂
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These are pretty and delicate looking, though I know Hellebores are quite resilient. Lovely photos Ann. I should pick some of mine and bring them indoors – it is so windy today!
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Thanks Jude! The weather here is due to turn wet, so I’ll probably have to pick more of mine if I want to photograph them – and to enjoy seeing them!
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So many hellebore photos I see show the flowers with their heads down. It’s nice to see these ‘faces’! Have you ever tried putting a one or two pixel ‘frame’ around the photos to help set them off? One that picks up a color from the flower might be especially nice. On the other hand, they do look attractive in your page’s broad expanse of white.
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A narrow pixel border can look great and I did do that a few times in the past, but I’ve gone for the white on white as a deliberate look for the blog. Now you have me thinking, hehe…
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Thank you for sharing your early bloomers, Ann, how exciting that spring flowers are starting to show. The hellebores are lovely and the white background reinforces their loveliness.
Happy explorations in your garden.
Tanja
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Thank you Tanja! The sight of these makes me happy to be out working in the garden, so they’re great as an incentive!
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I love Hellebores, too, and just ordered one I’ve been lusting after for longer than I can remember: https://m2labs.wordpress.com/2024/02/14/plant-lust-hellebore-onyx-odyssey/
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That one’s a beauty! I have a double that is rather more red – now I fancy that darker one too, hehe!
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