The Christmas Hellebore, Winter Gold. The only hellebore we propagated when I used to work at the nursery (many moons ago) I absolutely love these flowers, especially some of the more modern hybrids, but there is this old favourite, low growing variety that is so often overlooked. This blooms its heart out during those cold and often inhospitable months, and bravely looks up for the light. I used to tell my little granddaughter stories about the sad Hellebore who wouldn't look up at the sunshine, because an evil plant told her she was ugly. The good news is that I believe the breeders in the world of Hellebores are coming up with a few upward looking varieties. That may well be worth a look!
https://northcoastgardening.com/2012/04/upright-hellebore-flowers/ This site has a few of the new upward facing hellebore flowers, but they're not cheap !!. I'd love to grow them but my soil is too dry and sandy and in the shade, bone dry. Even with soil amendments they struggle here.
Annie, how about making a small bog garden. You need to shovel out some of that sandy stuff in a shady area to about 12 inches deep, and stick a butyl liner in it - a bit like making a very shallow pond, but then fill it up with the same kind of mix that you use for the raised beds. This will hold the moisture quite well enough to house all the types of plants that appreciate cooler damper situations!
The gold collection is newly bred by a German breeder called Heuger. Maybe a few of those would be a lovely surprise for @Sjoerd and his bride ...
I would love that !! Please send me a digger. Human or otherwise, makes no difference to me !! Oh, wait, the human one is cheaper to run, let's make it a human.
