I Was Tempted

The past couple of weeks have been a little busy, I am holding off from seed sowing as it is still a bit early but there has been some plant buying.  Well it was hard not to, I was tempted (that is my excuse and I am sticking to it).
Firstly I see an offer for bargain hellebores from Thompson and Morgan.  I am a member of the trial panel for Thompson and Morgan but I am also a paying customer the same as anyone else.  When bargains like this land in my email inbox it would be churlish to refuse. They arrived looking healthy and in really good condition.  They may not flower for a year or two but I can wait, that is part of the joy of hellebores, it is delayed gratification.
The other day I went to a talk by Tom Mitchell of Evolution Plants at the Nottingham group of the Hardy Plant Society  I have been going to their meetings for a few months now and they have had some interesting talks and some good plant buying opportunities.  Tom gave a very interesting talk about his plant hunting habits and plants that he collects and then afterwards there were plants from his nursery to buy.
This Helleborus occidentalis waved encouragingly at me and pleaded to be bought.  Well how could I refuse?  I do have a lot of hellebores, some named varieties and some that are hybrid seedlings.  They are a key part of my spring border and I have many in various parts of the garden.  This little beauty is a very welcome addition.
The next day I went to a talk by Brian Ellis of Avondale Nursery hosted by the East Midlands Group of Plant Heritage.  I have visited this nursery on a couple of occasions and already have plans to go again the near future.  The opportunity to hear Brian give a talk and buy a plant or two was too much to miss.  The talk was interesting and took us through the three national plant collections that Brian hosts.  So many tempting photographs were put before us, it was a visual shopping list.
Brian had bought many plants with him and I left with two of them:
Peony tenufolia, which is the pot that might on first glance look empty but there is a lovely fat bud growing.  I have been after one of these peonies for a while so it was not something I could walk away from.
The other plant is Veratrum album.  A plant I have not been looking for as long, but it is on the list of buy when you see it.
The leaves alone are wonderful, which is a good thing as it may be a year or three before I see a flower.
I know there will be more plant buying in the year, but Spring plant buying always seems special.  It is acknowledging that the growing season is about to really get going.  Let the fun commence!