That's great. I think my hellebores will be OK to but my witchhazels hardly have any flowers on them this year. Arnold's Promise has one flower and Diane has less than ten I'm sure.

Loretta, I remember commenting in November that the wild witchhazels didn't bloom well either - one or two blossoms on each shrub and that was it. I can see a few buds on my vernalis (don't ask me if it has a name).

Even the witchhazels at the arboretum didn't do as well as usual. Wonder why. I might suspect the late cold but that wouldn't affect the fall bloomers.

This was not a good year for my hamamelis Jelena. My guess is that it did not get cold enough in Nov-Dec for buds to form. Also, it may be a bit of a bust for Spring camellias. Most of the plants seem OK but a lot of the buds were about to bloom and got fried. Hellebore "Sunmarble" has done well and should bloom anytime now

Oh well, next year.

I have one full sized hellebore hybrid that is forming new flower buds. The other one that was about to bloom in Jan shows no sign of life, no buds. And my seedlings aren't looking too happy either. In the meantime, helleborus foetidus did great and even had honeybees visiting yesterday.
I am not sure I will have many camellias flowers either. Of the two I have, one was planted beneath a leak in my gutters and by the time I noticed, the ground was frozen and the plant was iced over. The other looks like very few buds might make it. Those buds are covered by leaves so next year, I will definitely burlap these plants. Both have leaf burn.

For the future, I found this in Anne Raver's column in today's New York Times:

"And donÂt be too tidy on a warm spring day, if there is still danger that temperatures may plunge. All those dead leaves on your hellebores are actually protecting the crowns and the tender green shoots."

To my neighbor's dismay, I do.

Well, misery loves company! I was beginning to think
I had done something terribly wrong to my Arnold's Promise, but it appears he's just misbehaving like every
one elses. . .

And my one hellebore which was blooming so nicely in January before the weather "blitzed" it, has decided to
rise from the dead and bloom it's head off again. This
has really been a winter for the books. . .