Well this was the strangest weather year. Flooding all spring...everything sitting in water for months. No rain for like 120 days in late summer. Excessive heat all summer through November. Very light frost only through December 1st (it's been 70F days and 50F nights pretty much all week).

One hellebore was unwatered and under very competitive oak trees and went crispy during the drought, but thankfully has re-emerged with the slight bit of rain we've received in October (really none since). All hellebores are pushing leaves (and buds down low), many of them more than I seem to remember before early spring.

I don't usually get a lot of foliage growth in late fall, but I sure am this year. Not sure there will be anything left to grow come spring, but as long as the winter remains mild and doesn't kill tender new foliage, I guess that's ok.

I bought a six pack of mixed Pine Knot hellebores two years ago, and am anxious to see their flowers this year (one tried last year, but we got a polar vortex that killed the flowers before I got to see coloring), plus I've bought one or two others this year of a particular strain (can remember 'Sandy Shores' (or maybe 'Spanish Flare', guess I need to go find the tag)). I made a statement that in my one acre yard (front and back) there's only one quarter that you can be more than 20 feet from a hellebore at all times (it's driveway and lawn/hell strip).

Non-hellebore, but my fall crocus are just now winding up..they never last this long (usually rain breaks them)..but of course none of that this fall. I watered the plantings in the front yard yesterday...odd for December.

What are others seeing this year? Typical or atypical?