The other man's grass and Christmas Roses

I live in North Buckinghamshire, which is North West of London. My mother used to live South of London in Surrey, but now she's moved near me. When she lived in Surrey, the plants in her garden always seemed to be about one month ahead of similar plants in my garden in Bucks. Now that she's living near me, you would think that our gardens would follow the same sort of timetable.

I have a Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) in my front garden. It has a reasonably new flower. You can tell that it's reasonably new because it's white. These flowers are quite interesting because they last for weeks. They are white when they first flower, and then gradually they turn pink, and then a deep pink, and still deeper until eventually they are quite brown. Here is a picture of my Christmas Rose, which was taken on Sunday.

Not a very imposing specimen. It's quite hard to get a picture because they're very low on the ground.

Now, here's one in my mother's garden, which is only about 10 minutes away from my garden.

It's weeks ahead of mine, and in much better shape. (For a start, it doesn't look as if it's been attacked by flamethrowers or caterpillars.)