Rose Of Winter Develops Fuller Foliage With Spring Sun

Diggin' In

March 07, 1999|By KATHY VAN MULLEKOM Daily Press

Helleborus is the garden topic to talk about this year.

Magazines everywhere are spotlighting the beauty of this plant with its nodding, sleepy-looking flowers. The Tidewater Garden Symposium on Thursday in Norfolk features Dave Culp, a nationally known helleborus hybridizer as one of its speakers.

Helleborus gives gardeners what they are looking for - wintertime color when bare is boring. That's why it's called the rose of winter. The showiest species is Lenten rose - Helleborus orientalis - which delivers flowers well into April. Colors include shades of plum, burgundy, lime green, light pink and white. Specks of colors often enhance the petals.

The most recent issue of The American Gardener published by the American Horticultural Society devotes eight pages to these winter wonders. This evergreen plant thrives in rich, well-drained soil in light shade. Spring sun, however, makes the foliage fuller. Hellebores tolerate most soils, but they like limestone added to acidic soil. They are long-lived strong plants that spread by rhizome division and seed.

"Foliage alone is reason enough to grow purple hellebore (H. purpurascens)," says author C. Colston Burrell, who has moved his hellebore collection from Minnesota to the Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville.

"The deeply divided hand-shaped leaves resemble origami parasols. Sauce-shaped flowers vary from rich plum-purple to sea-green and can open as early as December in mild climates."

The garden symposium featuring Culp will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at Norfolk Academy on Wesleyan Drive, just off Interstate 64 in Norfolk. Other speakers include Pam Baggett, a specialist in heat-tolerant plants and owner of Singing Springs mail-order nursery (919) 732-9403); Sylvia Ehrhardt, owner of Ehrhardt Organic Farm in Knoxville, Tenn.; and Longwood Gardens horticulturist Richard Lighty, a native plants expert. Cost: $35, including lunch and handouts. To register, call 440-5137. The event is sponsored by the Norfolk and Virginia Beach garden clubs.

CAMELLIAS DROPPING? If the blooms on your camellia japonica develop dark veins, turn brown and drop off, the flowers probably have flower blight, a fungus named Sclerotinia camelliae. To control, pick off and discard all old camellia blossoms before they fall. A mulch of wood chips around the base of the plant prevents fungus bodies in the soil from ejecting their spores into the air and onto the plant. Replace the mulch each year.

Good sanitation in the garden helps control the spread of many diseases, especially fungus-type ones which spread by air-borne spores.

GARDEN EVENTS. Here are some more gardening events you may like to attend:

* Garden Club of Gloucester hosting Virginia master gardener and author Hardie Newton for a lecture and flower-arranging demonstration spotlighting her new book "Celebration of Flowers" 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. March 17; cost $50. A book-signing party for Hardie that evening at White Hall Plantation is $10. Reservations: Louise Whitley, (804) 693-5042.

* Colonial Williamsburg hosting its 53rd Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium March 28-31. Nationally known landscape designers will explore the theme "Celebrating American Garden Design." Other events include workshop with Libbey Oliver, former Colonial Williamsburg floral manager, and tours of some gardens in Virginia Beach. Information: 220-7174.

* Today is the last day of Outdoor '99 at McDonald Garden Center in Hampton.

TIP OF THE WEEK

* It's time to apply pre-emergence crabgrass control. Some products recommend several applications, so read the directions carefully. See your local extension office or garden center for more information.

* The grass is greening up, too. Make sure your lawn mower is clean, the blade is sharp and the spark plug is new so your mower is ready to roll.

* Play the gardening trivia contest and win tickets to the Mid-Atlantic Home & Garden Show March 26-28 at the Virginia Beach Pavilion. To play, call 928-1111, category 4780.