A pair of early risers

If you want early-season blooms in your yard, plant Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis) and dwarf iris (Iris reticulata). This combination will provide flowers for your garden in January and February while most plants are still too scared to brave the chilly weather.

Lenten Rose

Fall is a great time to plant, and if you set out Lenten roses now, they will add bold texture to your garden with their coarse, leathery foliage. Their large palmate leaves have a fine-toothed edge. These low-growing evergreen plants prefer loose, well-drained, fertile soil. They thrive in full to partial shade. When set out in sunny locations, their foliage will burn, especially when exposed to hot western sun.

Plant them about 15 inches apart in large sweeps to make a wonderful, low-growing ground cover. Lenten roses nicely complement ferns or hostas in woodland settings or shade borders. Flowers appear as early as mid-January and will last a month or two. Blooms vary in color from pink and purple to white with buttery yellow stamens. In the spring, flowers turn green and small seedpods form inside the old blooms. If you want plants to multiply, don't cut off old flowers until the seedpods have split open and dispersed their seeds. You can let the seeds drop naturally, or you can collect and scatter them in other areas.

Dwarf Iris

Many people are familiar with tiny, early-blooming crocus and have seen their small-cupped flowers sprinkled across the ground, but few have witnessed the beauty of dependable dwarf iris. Their little, brown, teardrop-shaped bulbs can be planted in the fall to produce a magical show in only a few months. Dwarf iris bulbs may be hard to find at your local garden center, so purchase them from a mail-order catalog.

Their small size makes them easy to plant. Just bury them about an inch or two below the soil surface, pointed end up. Space about 4 inches apart, and plant them in sweeps. Water them in, and you won't need to water any more unless you have lengthy dry periods.

Green shoots will begin emerging from the bulbs in mid- to late-- January, and then it takes only a couple of weeks until blooms appear. The little iris blooms can last for two to three weeks. Flowers sit on strong 4- to 6-inch stems. Once the blooms are spent, the low, spiked foliage continues to grow to 12 to 14 inches in height. By summer the leaves die down and disappear. Dwarf iris will come back each year and multiply by sending out offsets from the bulb.

This petite iris will take full sun, but it also performs well in partial shade, positioned next to Lenten rose. These early bulbs and perennials can team up for a showy late-- winter combination. Because there is so little color in the garden at this time of year, even small flowers really stand out; they give us hope and are proof that spring is returning.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Nov 2002
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