Winter Aconite
Celebrate the end of cold weather with winter aconite, one of the first blooming plants you’ll see in your yard before spring actually arrives. It sometimes appears so early (before crocus!) that the buttercup-like flowers burst up and out of the snow. This plant catches the eye in beds and borders, along pathways, and when mixed with crocus and other ephemerals in the lawn.
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Hellebore
Hellebores are so easy and so pretty, they have a place in nearly every landscape. Their exquisite bowl- or saucer-shape flowers in white (often speckled), pinks, yellows, or maroon remain on the plant for several months, even after the petals have fallen. Deer-resistant and mostly evergreen, hellebores' divided leaves rise on sturdy stems and may be serrated (like a knife) along the edges. Grow hellebores in shade where soil remains moist; some hellebores prefer acid or alkaline conditions, depending on variety.
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Potato
Tender potatoes, harvested fresh from your backyard and then baked until tender, are a favorite entrée accompaniment. Growing potatoes is especially rewarding because they’re so easy. You can practically plant them and forget them until it’s time to harvest.
There are a wealth of potato varieties. One notable kind to try is delicious fingerlings, which come in a rainbow of colors. Skin colors include red, white, blue, tan, and brown; flesh colors include traditional white as well as yellow, red, blue, and bicolors. Dig them while they’re still small for the most delicate garden treat. Let them get larger if you want to mash or store them.
Potatoes are usually grown from pieces of tuber, called sets or seed potatoes, rather than true seed. Plant them two to four weeks before the last spring frost. After sprouts emerge, mound soil around the stems to shade developing tubers from sun. Exposed tubers turn green, bitter, and mildly toxic (cut out any green portions before serving.)
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Honeywort
Honeywort, with its leathery grey/green foliage and intriguing blue to purple bracts, is a fast-growing annual native to the Mediterranean region. This drought-tolerant plant flourishes both in the ground and in containers, which show off the semi-cascading shoots. Honeywort is also called blue shrimp plant because of the color and shape of the blooms and bracts.
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Heliotrope
An old-fashioned, hardy annual that has seen a resurgence in popularity, the heliotrope often is found by scent rather than by sight. Colorful clusters of small purple or blue blooms top off darker green foliage. Gardeners can’t seem to agree on its sweet scent; some think it smells like vanilla, others claim it smells like baby powder, grapes, or cherry pie.
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