No purpose is served by counting the number of hellebores (below) in the garden. Perhaps there are hundreds, at least many dozens, but no matter the count, the goal of helping me get through the long winter has been served again.

Yes, there are many other flowers in the garden, and others assist in bringing joy through the gray winter months. I would not be without witch hazels (Hamamelis x intermediate ‘Arnold Promise’, below) or camellias that flower sporadically in periods of mild temperatures.

Despite this mild winter, camellia blooms have been fewer, but now the cycle begins. Many buds remain on one autumn flowering ‘Winter’s Star’. These should soon join spring flowering camellias (Camellia japonica, below) that show their earliest flowers and many swelling buds.

On occasion, paperbushes (Edgeworthia chrysantha, below) will flower early in February, but today begins their long period of bloom. I impatiently await this day, and certainly will never understand why one flower arrives weeks early and another later than usual.