This emerald coloured bergenia is coming alive after a long winter. Its thick, waxy leaves actually “resurrect”. They can look completely dead and then just straighten up in the spring.  While raking leaves around this plant, I am reminded why the resurrection myth   appears in cultures scattered across the globe. We see it right under our feet every spring. I feel like Demeter peering into the earth waiting for her daughter to emerge from the underworld.

Bergenias come from the area between Afghanistan and China. They can grow in extreme temperature ranges in almost any light conditions. They form a slow-growing ground cover and are some of the earliest plants to bloom. I have never seen them get diseased and even slugs don’t seem to bother them much as long as you clean out all the dead foliage beneath them.