Lovely spring flowers! Just added hellebores this spring so the verdict isn't in on them here. I'm in 5a, the freeze after the warm temps zapped my dicentra, no flowers this year : (

Sherry

Sherry, was a very recent article in the Toronto Star about hellebores. The author said more or less that he'd delayed using them because he didn't want to be stampeded by all the previous hellebore hype. Now, however, when he sees them in his garden in spring, he wouldn't do without them. Me too!

oooh, I like that pulmonaria. I have been slow to grasp some of the possibilities of shade plants...and absolutely dismissed pulmonarias purely because of mottley, spottley leafage - definitely not my thing...but I would go for that in a heartbeat.

I do have a couple now but I confess, still a tad underwhelmed.

Beautiful! Not sure where you are but we had a very similar winter/spring. 70 degrees on Christmas, super cold in February and March, and very little snow. I'm loving the hellebores.

By my understanding they should be fine for Z6a, Jessica.

Some of us have been forced to deal with shade on occasions, Camp. But, as you'd know, there's shade and there's shade and also discussion about shade and hellebores.

Re lungworts: have quite a few at this stage and am at pains to try to keep them identified (seeding: the cultivars don't come true from seed and pulmonaria are quick to hybridize). But not all the cultivars are motley/spotty, viz. cultivars with green leaves and cultivars with silver leaves.

I'd say that even the green-leaved species Pulmonaria angustifolia is a pretty plant. Picture from May 18, 2011 when I had more of it.

I love those little yellow flowers! Crocus x lutea 'Golden Yellow', Im definitely going to have to plant those!

It's a happy time when spring finally gets going! I'm pretty sure Hellebores 'Pink Frost' is the one I have, too. It's been great at producing LOTS of flowers that do stand so they show themselves like yours are doing. They last a long time, too! It was my first Hellebore, so I thought they all held their flowers like that and was surprised that my recent ones all have those nodding flowers.

I really like that hellebore. Most of mine are volunteers, so dark, nodding blooms. It has been a mixed up year here, and very advanced, tulips and iris blooming together, roses about to explode on the scene. A night near freezing is predicted for Mon. and then warm again. I have one pulmonaria left-very similar to yours-epimediums and pulmonarias have faded the last few very hot, dry summers.

Sandyslopes, I'm certainly also learning about hellebores on the job.

For me, learning about gardening is primarily doing.

Same thing here in central Ohio - warm March, chilly early April (with dusting of snow, lows down to about 24F), last half of April shaping up to be modestly milder than usual (frost advisory last night, but I think we escaped with a low near 40). Gardening life as usual in the Midwest.

Brunneras were set back only minimally by the early April cold and are still flowering. I'm looking forward to seeing what the self-sown Hellebores are going to do when they (eventually) bloom. Can't see paying big bucks for fancy Hellebore hybrids, but the cheapies have been nice.

The 14 Campanula persicifolias I set out last weekend avoided what could have been a disaster. I had covered them with a lightweight frost cloth to avoid wilt because they were transplanted on a warm sunny afternoon. My black Lab decided the cloth was a new dog bed and stepped onto it; we were able to warn her off before she lay down and squashed the plants.

As per Rusty: brunnera are another great spring plant around here.

Davez7: Think something that helps the spring perennials like pulmonaria, in our mixed perennial beds, is "layering (?)"; namely, from planting, the taller summer perennials shade the lower spring ones. Don't think it's the same as ephemerals, under the forest canopy, since they just go through their whole life cycle in spring. Think the garden spring perennials need sun in fall. Maybe their needs would be accommodated by deciduous tree leaves coming down in fall.

I achieve sun in fall by cutting back summer perennials, to ground level, after they bloom. We do have fall perennials, but the beds are more open at that time..

Obviously, how sunny the flower beds are is highly relevant. So are things like the length of the fall in the garden's location. We do also pay fair attention to watering needs through the growing season.

Pink Frost is a stellar hellebore! I have many different varieties, but this one is the only one the voles appeared to favor as well, so I lost it. I really do need to pick up another. So sturdy and floriferous,

Epimedium are just starting to pop which always makes me very happy in spring. Makes up for the squirrels eating all the buds off my viburnums. Little buggers. Our little snowshoe hare visitor doesn't appear to like trillium, epimedium, hellebore, primrose, bloodroot, pulmonaria or other plants I have in my shade gardens where it's hanging out. I hope that doesn't change! Has a definite taste for heuchera which it is mowing down as fast as it grows. I have so much I'm just glad it's sticking with those and the lawn.

Camp, you might want to check out pulmonaria 'Majeste' which is very silver and not mottled at all. At least in my garden.

Another 'near silver' one is 'Cotton Cool'. It is interesting that many of its seedlings which pop up are nearly a cleanly silver as it is. I also am partial to Pulmonarias and really like the P. rubra varieties as well as the more common longifolia and saccharata group.

P. 'Majeste' has silver seedlings that look like the original in my garden.

Currently a cold spell. Today, saw a bit of snow (the first snow seen here, in May, for 14 years).

Was at a Merlin's Hollow open-garden yesterday.

David Tomlinson (left), Dierdre Tomlinson (right):

scree (gravel) bed: