Hellebores and Hostas

Since March, I have been thinking of hellebores and hostas. Landscaping. A design. A plan. And planning almost anything gives me a tinge of anxiety, especially if there aren’t easy tasks for me to mark off my list. And I procrastinate when it comes to calling people to ask them for things. So this project was tucked away for a while now taking up way too much of my mental space. It is also why I wasn’t blogging that much the week before last. The anticipation was just too much.

After our meeting with the DC Ag Extension office, I felt like we had an idea of what would work in the empty planters box that runs along H Street. She advised us that flowers are most likely to be stolen between Easter and Mother’s Day. So that ruled out my favorite – gorgeous, but showy peonies. But I also loved the delicate little nature of hellebores. She agreed that hostas and hellebores would be great. Other plants were mentioned, but the alliteration stuck.

I googled hellebores to find that two experts run Pine Knot Farms, located near the Virginia/North Carolina border. And they would be setting up for Green Spring Garden days the afternoon before our landscaping day. I would only need to drive to Fairfax. Fantastic. Plus Judith was super nice!

So last Friday, Al and I went to pick out some hostas at Behnke’s. After lunch Brendan and I went to meet the hellebores. We planted three hostas in each bay and two hellebores in between.

Saturday, we had a great turn out of people to help clean up the beds, plant some ground cover in the arch, and lay down sod. Like magic, there is 200 square feet more of grass in Downtown DC than before. I am guessing that raised the amount of actual grass by a third.

These are our hosta varieties:

Blue Angel

Plantain Lily

Patriot

And our hellebores:
They are all Lenten Roses Helleborus x hybridus single flowering plants.

Bicolour

Pink

Rhubarb and Custard

After we went home for a nap, I asked Henry to walk with me to visit the plants. I feel like they are my pets. Can you tell?

We decided to skip the stroller.