Hellebores at Mt Macedon rare plants nursery

Yesterday I worked up at Dicksonia Rare Plants nursery in Mt Macedon. I haven't worked up there for a couple of weeks due to there being incredibly heavy rain. Its been quite uncomfortable working up on the mountain during the winter. Some days it's been between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius and when you take the wind chill factor into account it makes for a bloody cold day. Yesterday was the first day of spring and also the first day in a while where the weather has been sunny and warm. It made for a nice change.

From the nursery I've photographed these Hellebores. Almost everyone who enters stops to look at them. They are hybrids the first of which is called Helleborus x ballardiae 'pink frost'. I'm not sure of the name of the second but you can see that it is a double Hellebore of some variety. These plants have survived the cold winter up at Mt Macedon so they can obviously tolerate frost. Hellebores can also tolerate some shade and they like to be planted under deciduous trees.