Hellebore niger seem later this year or is it just me? Either way you need to get down on your knees to see the best of the Hellebore flowers as they tend to hang the flower-heads to hide their modesty.

• Grow Hellebores on raised beds or sloping banks so you have a chance to see the flowers.
• Pick the flowers for a vase and see their intricacy close up.
• Plant Helleborus x sternii ‘Blackthorn’ with the upright growth habit of Helleborus argutifolius or Helleborus ‘Boughton Beauty’, Helleborus ‘Rachel’ and Helleborus ‘Winter’s Grace’. Suggestions from Hellbore.com
• Helleborus foetidus the stinking Hellebore is upright with a green flower.

After scenting the flowers of the Witch Hazel look up and see the glorious patterns they form against a blue sky. Fortunately there are generally masses of bloom before the leaves appear and you can see patterns of petals from numerous buds.

• The flower colour, particularly in the hybrids can range from pale yellow, orange through to red and many of them have good scent, from sweet to spicy.
• A  good photographic display of the following can be found on Witch Hazel nursery Hamamelis x intermedia, Hamamelis japonica, Hamamelis mollis, Hamamelis vernalis and Hamamelis virginiana.