On the Death of the Winter Garden: The Mythical Hellebore Awakes!
16Mar08
In which The Gay Recluse retreats to our garden in Washington Heights.
As it has done for thousands of years — and not just in our garden — the hellebore has sent forth the most beautiful, delicate blossoms at this improbable juncture, as if to taunt winter into sending one last storm. (Let’s hope nobody is provoked.)
A white flower.
A pink flower.
A black flower (the rarest and most temperamental of all the hellebores, it is said to have killed Alexander The Great).
[This post is dedicated to Stephen — great lover of hellebores — who is (omg!) stuck in Pittsburgh!]
Filed under: History, Landscape, Memory, The Spring Garden, The Winter Garden, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: Alexander the Great, Black Flower, gardening, Hellebore, Hellebores, Mythology, Pink, Spring, White, Winter
The Gay Recluse 
Hellebores are kind of creepy.
Perhaps, but I would say in a cool, goth kind of way as opposed to a Dick Cheney Lord of Darkness kind of way.
For more about Hellebores:
http://www.sunfarm.com/specials