It’s March!
And when I walked out of the door this morning it was much milder than I expected – about 6 or 7 degrees (which for my corner of the earth IS mild at this time of year!), prompting me to break out my New Spring Coat, which is lighter and brighter and it made me happy to wear it for the first time. And then I got this…
…so apparently winter is not done with us quite yet!
On the topic of frosty/mild mornings, a note about hellebores. If you walk out on a frosty morning and find your hellebores looking rather floppy – don’t panic. On very cold days, the stalks will bend low, flowers touching the ground, and they’ll look a bit sad.
But when the temperatures rise again, they’ll perk back up and resume the usual position. When I first witnessed this, I was a bit alarmed and worried I’d somehow damaged them, even though apart from removing old black-spotted leaves I had pretty much left them to their own devices since last year. Thankfully this is normal hellebore behaviour and, being very hardy plants, they should continue to grow quite happily through the rest of the frosts, right through to sunny spring.
So although I might suffer with tomorrow’s predicted severe temperature dip (the New Spring Coat will go back into the wardrobe for now), at least I know my hellebores will not!
Julianne Robertson 