In plant materials, sometimes you really do get what you pay for.The Hellebores' stay here is nearly at an end. I have enjoyed having these little beauties here since the day I posted about their arrival just over 3 months ago in November 2010.Since they arrived, they've done nothing but amaze me. Their quality is outstanding, far superior than what was available locally. These green friends illustrated beautifully that sometimes it is well worth it to pay more for something that on the surface seems like the same thing.You see, the same week that I received that box of beauties from Fraser's Thimble Farms, I got a little green myself and drove over to a well regarded retail nursery in the East Bay. I paid $20. for a single 1 gallon plant of the exact same cultivar. My client's plants cost $39. each, not counting shipping and inspection certificates (so actually, they cost quite a bit more than that). I potted them on arrival because they had been bare-rooted for the trip, and soon they'll be installed in their new home's garden. In the photo below, that scrappy little guy in the front is mine.Unfortunately, my plant looks exactly as it did the day I got it, where my client's plants are considerably nicer. The ones from Fraser's are known to be about 4 years old. In conversations with their staff, I learned that Hellebores need to be a few years old before they are mature enough to bloom, so perhaps this is the problem with my little one....OR perhaps the difference is that mine was grown without personal attention at a commercial grower where the ones from Fraser's were grown with care by a knowledgeable bunch of people. Either way, it was well worth the extra money for quality plant materials.I'm looking forward to seeing if mine grows into a nice specimen now that I'm in charge, and to seeing how well the ones going to my clients' garden will perform over time under the care of his gardener. I will be very interested to watch them all, even though I'm sad to see these beauties leave my patio.