Seven Minutes: Day 4

The Life of the Winter Party

Before the stately tulip wakes, long before the brazen peony bursts forth in its fantastic mad-hattery, the stalwart hellebore enters the room.

No short-lived party favor, this misnamed bloom puts its little toe across the threshold in November, and doesn’t exit the building until July. A spark in the dark of winter, the hellebore is sometimes referred to as the Christmas or Lenten rose, but this fine specimen has nothing in common with the rose. Not genetically nor spiritually.

Deer won’t go near it. Ravenous rabbits wrinkle their noses in its general direction. I wouldn’t consider my garden complete without it.

Thank you for reading.

{| AC