Trees and shrubs give structure and form to the garden in winter.  Most perennials have gone dormant. And the ones that are evergreen often look tired and ragged by February.  Even some of the conifers don’t look their best if their winter color is ‘brown toast’. This is a good time to assess your garden’s bones (the trees and shrubs).

At the arboretum there are many plants that show their mature beauty. A large, multi-trunked  saucer magnolia displays its smooth, gray bark. Its limbs are full of fat flower buds. The  Winterberry Hollies  flank the sidewalk into the overlook garden. On one side is the bare male and on the other the female is still adorned with all her red berries. A large Japanese Cedar is covered with cones.
Blue Holly, Poet’s Laurel, and Florida Anise are evergreen shrubs that look good all winter.  
A few flowers are appearing. The Japanese Apricots are starting to bloom and the Winter Daphne. And if you look down, the Lenten Rose, one of those evergreen perennials, has pushed up its flower spikes.

The Hellebores are one of the ‘bones’ of the garden. In the dead of winter when many plants are stripped of their foliage, the Hellebore is a star.

There are three Hellebores common here:
The Lenten Rose  (Helleborus orientalis) is the most common. It is an erect, spreading mound of large,coarse, palmate leaves and can easily be two feet wide by one and a half feet tall. It does well under deciduous trees, where it gets sun in winter and shade in summer. Moist well-drained, organic soil make it thrive, but it tolerates dry soil once fully established. The flowers (which are sepals) started opening in late January and will continue for 8 to 10 weeks. They are green, white, pink, dark purple, solid colored to speckled.   The showy sepals remain on the plant for months, even after the color fades. Pruning off  the tattered leaves will showcase the flowers and new leaves will soon spring up. Often the flowers are nodding so they look good on slopes above walkways. There are no serious pests or diseases. This plant is native to Greece and Asia. It is hardy in zones 3 to 8. Fertilize in early spring. Placed in a fertile spot this plant will reseed with abandon. The Lenten Rose is an easily grown, long lived, winter flowering, spreading, disease free perennial for shade.
The Stinking Hellebore or Bearsfoot Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus)  has palmate leaves that are more fingerlike than its cousin, orientalis. The flowers are unpleasantly scented, thus the common name, stinking hellebore. This plant is much more open and has a medium to fine texture. It gets 18 to 24 inches tall with a similar spread. The mature leaves are a very dark green color and new growth is chartreuse green. The flowers are chartreuse green lined with red and appear February into April. The cultural requirements are the same as orientalis. It is hardy in zones 5 to 9. It is from Europe. It is not as hardy as orientalis and does not reseed as freely. However, there should be enough babies to keep the plant around forever, once established.
The third hellebore is the Christmas Rose  (Helleborus niger).   It is the hardest to establish. It prefers to be consistently moist, in the shade, and in slightly basic soil. It has a large white flower that is beautiful against the dark green foliage. The leaves are similar to orientalis.  It is hardy in zones 3 to 8 and comes from Europe and Asia.
The Hellebores are scattered about in various locations in the arboretum. Come out and see how many of them you can find and how many different flower colors. You may have to stoop down to their level and gently turn their faces up to you to get a good look. It’s well worth it.