The first is mullein, not comfrey, especially if the dates are accurate. Mullein is semievergreen; comfrey has already died to the ground. Mullein is a native weed, which can selfseed everywhere if allowed to set seed. It is also biennial. Your plant will put up a 4-5 ft bloom stalk with small yellow flowers next year and then die. I'm not sure I would move it as it grows everywhere already.

I think the second is in the arum family, related to the wild woodland plant jack-in-the-pulpit. Somebody should come along and know the scientific name. I've been thinking of ordering this for years but just never have.

I am not sure that you can move the mullein. I think it has a long root. I sometimes let it grow even though it is a weed. I think it is interesting looking but I also like poke so not everyone would agree.

Thanks, Ladies.

The mullein is over at the old home place. I remember seeing it in the area for at least 60 years. The other plant is in one of mom's older flower beds. I don't remember planting, and mom has not been able to plant anything for several years.

I may move one of the arum plants over here because I don't have anything that green this time of year.

Larry

I like mullein too and let it alone except in the flower beds. It is a favorite of children because the leaves are so large and fuzzy. Larry, If you decide you want it at your house, you could always let the plant you saw go to seed and bring seed, remembering that they do selfseed readily.

Helen,I like poke too, not only cooked with scrambled eggs, but just to look at in the landscape. I think it is beautiful, especially with a bluebird or two hanging onto the berry clusters in late fall and winter. I do have to weed a lot of it out of the garden though, because I've let it grow in the fencerow.

Larry, if you want green this time of the year, I can collect Hellebore seed when it ripens and send it. Not only is the plant green right now, but it has lovely white flowers. Other options for green now are the foliage of red spider flower and grape hyacinth. Oxalis is also still green.

Arum italicum is the other plant.

Dorothy, is Hellebore that easy to grow? I like that plant and had one in my basket to buy one day and just couldn't justify the price since I didn't know where I was going to put it.

Carol, I think I promised you seed too. Yes, very easy to grow, unless it gets to 110 in July. I lost my original plant this past summer, but still have about a dozen babies that are starting to bloom now. I think I bought mine for $12.00 3 or 4 years ago.

Dorothy, thanks.

I would love to get any seed that may look good this time of year. Madge and I know very little about plants and we want the place to look like it has a little more of a diversified touch.

Larry

The seeds mature in March. This year I will try to remember to collect before they drop. But I'm glad I forgot last year or I would be minus hellebore and as it is I have all these seedlings that came up last spring.

I hear fresh hellebore seeds will germinate pretty quickly, but if they have any age to them, it took me a full year to germinate them. But they were super easy. I put them in a container with holes punched in the top and bottom, stuck them under a bush in a shady spot where they would get watered frequently and just left them alone. I had baby hellebores the next spring.

Lisa

Things that are green in my garden right now: Missouri Violet, Shasta Daisy, Hellebore, Prickly Pear, Orange Daylily, Pansy, Alyssum, Sweet Autumn Clematis, Iris, Ornamental Kale (well actually it's purple), Lavender, and the upiquitous Henbit.

I bit the bullet a couple of years ago and bought my Lenten Rose and I have never regretted it. It does so well! It is a beautiful color of green and the blooms come when nothing else is blooming, except maybe the pansies, and they keep on going through daffodil season. It makes seeds every year and I let them germinate where they fall in the garden and dig them up in the spring. My plants are in an east facing bed with a big Rose of Sharon bush to their South so they get protection both ways.

Those flowers are beautiful. Are your seedlings that pretty color or do they revert to white or green? I think I haven't appreciated this plant because I see the ones with green flowers, but someone told me those are the old flowers. I have one that I got on sale have not seen it bloom, but the foliage is nice after a terrible hot dry summer with little care.

Tigerdawn, love your pink hellebore!! Do you have white? Want white? Want to trade seed? I only have white. (Sorry Larry, but your thread has been hijacked.)

Things that are green in my yard right now include boxwood, spruce, camellia, rhodies, euonymus, holly, nandina,(flushed with burgundy) oxalis, hardy autumnblooming cyclamen, ajuga, lambsear, rose campion (these two are silver) Shasta Daisy and in the garden the arugula, winter onion, garlic, leeks, carrots, cilantro and kale are all still alive and green. And the windbreak on the north side of the orchard is a row of pine trees we planted 30 years ago. And then of course there are the winter weeds in the lawn. Henbit, chickweed, wild violets are all out there now. We never weedkill in our lawn so it looks green all winter. And much of it is fescue and that stays green all winter.

I am glad it was hijacked, I would have missed so much if it had not been.

Thanks for the beautiful picture and the information. I hope to start growing more flowers AND veggies.

Larry

The only plant I have that has bloomed so far is that one. I gave last years' babies to my mom and I don't remember if they made it. I brought a plant home from the 2010 swap from someone who lives in Norman (forgot who) and I'm hoping it'll bloom this year. I just got plant #1 in 2009 but I'm definitely addicted to them and would love more!

If I have germination by the end of April I'll bring seedlings to the swap. I imagine I'll have seedlings of a mystery sage as well. It is still kind of green, BTW but turning browner from the top down.