It's alive!!!

Finally had a chance to rake some leaves. All the marking is done. This potentially deadly, yet beautiful Helleborus cultivar, was not waiting for the rake. It was already poking above the leaves, and after some careful "don't remove the flowers" raking it was a joy to see that there will be many flowers this year.

This is one of the first plants to make it into my garden >10 years ago. It is slowly taking over, but produces some beautiful pendulous flowers early in the season. The fruits are also quite photogenic, as I'm sure I'll post later.