The third week of January means just one week until the start of the gardening season with the first indoor home and garden show beginning Jan. 29 and running until Feb. 2 (visit www.tacomahomeandgardenshow.com).

This means spring is starting with the option to shop indoors for winter flowering perennials and shrubs. Even if you can’t attend one of the local garden shows, get thee to a nursery where you may find these January bloomers for sale now. Happy plant hunting!

All Hail the Heavenly Hellebore

It seems like a winter miracle but there is a tough perennial that flowers all winter in a variety of colors and forms. Hellebores are not only deer resistant, but will bloom in the shade and, once established, can survive on rainfall alone. When you see hellebores for sale, buy them. Here are the best hellebore tips:

Ignore the price of any hellebore plant.

The hardy hellebore should cost more than a typical perennial in a one gallon pot because they take several years to grow from seed, much longer than other perennial plants.

The good news is that here in Western Washington we pay much less than gardeners in other parts of the world for these amazing winter blooming plants. This is because thousands of hellebores are grown locally by wholesale nurseries and trucked to retail establishments without the high shipping costs. We get healthier plants at a bargain price.

I know hellebores sell for over $40 in other regions but in Western Washington you can find one gallon hellebores for as low as $20.

Add compost or leaf mold to the planting hole to keep your hellebore happy.

Organic matter is the key to keeping these woodland plants happy and hydrated over the summer.

Dig a wide hole when adding a hellebore plant to your garden.

Hellebores have thick, but brittle roots and a wide hole – think at least two feet wide for a one-gallon plant, will allow the roots to spread out into soft soil that has been amended with organic matter and grow into the drought resistant, carefree plant that any winter garden would be proud of.

Hellebores do not like to be divided or moved.

Select a spot where they are shaded from the hot afternoon sun and do not offer to split up or divide your hellebore plant no matter how much a friend admires it. To share a hellebore with a patient gardener, look for seedlings near the mother plant in the spring.

Now is the time to get snippy with hellebore leaves.

Removing the old foliage from last year’s growth now during the winter will allow for better air circulation and make the lovely blooms much easier to see. Cutting back the old leaves, stems and all, will also prevent leaf molds and bacterial diseases from spreading to the fantastic flowers. Choose a mild winter day, arm yourself with scissors or a needle nosed pruning tool and clip and toss the large leathery leaves into a pile of wheelbarrow. If they do not have black spots or dark lesions, they are safe to go into the compost pile.

Start collecting different varieties of hellebores this month – before they are gone.

Jacob is the hellebore with upright blooms in pure white, Wedding Party is the name of the double flowering hellebores that float so beautifully in bird baths and tea cups, and Ice and Roses is an easy to grow hellebore in a reddish tint. The secret is to start looking now for the more unusual hellebore varieties as collectors scoop up the best of the bunch in the month of January. What makes hellebore collecting a craze for practical, lazy gardeners is that hellebores are long lived, easy care and dazzling during the winter months when we are all hungry for color. Wait – did I mention that hellebores are also slug resistant? Happy hellebore hunting.