I love February because it has so many moods.

It can catch us off guard with snow or tempt us with warm previews of spring. It’s the month here in the mild rainshadow of the Olympic Mountains, when buds and sprouts emerge as welcome harbingers. The last few mornings I’ve heard more birdsong all around me, and that always adds more cheer to my days—even if the temperature hovers in the 30s.

As a gardener primarily of flowers and herbs, I especially adore the hardy plants who are willing to bloom at this time of year. One of my favorites is the hellebore, though I wish it had a name that would conjure up sun breaks and pastel colors. It’s range is perfect for this time of year: from white to pinks, greens and purples—and even to near-black. Hellebores are herbaceous perennial flowering plants, grown historically for their purported medicinal uses.

My uses are simple: to delight in such luxurious blooms in mid-winter and to meditate on the wonder of an ecosystem still able to produce such miracles out of frozen earth.

If you don’t have hellebores in your garden, go visit someone who does. Or look around your local parks…Chetzemoka Park in Port Townsend, Washington has a lovely clump of purple ones nestled up against a tall cottonwood, not far from the gazebo. Give the hellebores a round of applause—sadly, many are overlooked simply because we are outside less often in winter.

Any lily can bloom in July—it takes courage to poke your head up in January and open tender petals in February.

CONTEMPLATIONS

• Are you willing to test new ideas right now?
• What brave act are you considering?
• What winter blossoms lie hidden in your soul?

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