Christmas in March!

OK, not really. In fact, I just dragged the xmas tree to the curb that had been serving as a bird perch in the back yard. But my Helleborus niger are blooming! One of their common names is Christmas Rose because in some places they bloom around the end of December. I've only once found a small, weak flower on mine in that season. Instead, these sit with their buds right at ground level all winter. This way they can even beat the Crocus to the punch, provided the snow goes away as it did this last week.


Also, coincidentally, I bought some Christmas Beans while I was visiting Alabama last week. I know nothing about them other than that they're a "pole lima" type. It's cool that I can buy almost a pound of them in bulk for cooking for about the same price a few dozen individual beans would have cost me in a seed packet. I haven't decided how I'll cook them. I may even save a few to plant in my garden this year. I mostly got them because I thought they looked cool.