Kiss the Earth

I'm late hopping on the hellebore bandwagon. It's been steamrolling forward for years now. But now's when they're blooming and even latecomers like me have to admit that they're something special. I have exactly one in my garden, a gift that was planted last year. It's now budding up and ready to bloom and I can't wait. I need to get more because it really is true. Once you experience these lovely things once, you'll find yourself wanting more.

(Linden Hill Gardens in Ottsville, Pa., will host a Hellebore Festival this Saturday and Sunday, March 29 and 30. Info: 610-847-1300 or www.jerryfritzgardendesign.com)

Hellebores are also known as Lenten rose but like so many things in the plant world, this makes no sense. They aren't roses, although their cup-like flowers do look a little like the wild roses you see blooming at the beach. Around here they're one of the first things to bloom in spring.

Garden professionals ooh and ahh over them but I think most ordinary gardeners have no idea. The good news is that you can find them at all the online nurseries and a lot of the earthbound ones, too, now; they're no longer considered exotic, in every sense of that word. (They're not native.)

They come in all colors, from plummy purple to greenish white, and in many variations of stripe, streak, splash and blotch, single and double flower. And nurseries are selling a good variety. Spring Hill, for example, has 'Blue Lady', 'Pink Lady', 'White Lady', 'Red Lady' and "Yellow Lady,' as well as several mixes of non-ladies. The colors are unusual, the blooms last for weeks. They do fine in shade, better in sun and each year they spread.

So although in my family we laugh about the "helluvabore" over by the yew, we're laughing to mask the pain of having just one.