There may be a chill in the air, but at Juniper Level Botanic Garden (JLBG), plants will be in full bloom at the Winter Rose Festival and Open Garden and Nursery days, February 23-25 and March 1-3.

JLBG’s Open Garden and Nursery days – held just two weekends every season – allow visitors from across the Triangle and around the country to enjoy one of the largest and most diverse plant collections in the world. This season’s theme, Winter Rose Festival, invites guests to explore hundreds of Hellebores, more commonly known as the Lenten rose, throughout the eight-acre garden grounds. A perennial flowering plant in the Ranunculaceae family, Hellebores are known for their evergreen foliage and winter blooms in stunning pink, yellow, white and green hues.

“While technically not in the rose family, Hellebore are a genus of 15 species and numerous hybrids – giving the winter garden the beauty of spectacular rose-like blooms,” says Tony Avent, founder and proprietor of JLBG. “Beyond the more than 665 Hellebores in the garden, we’ll also have hundreds more – at least 30 varieties – for purchase in the nursery. Many of these varieties will be available for sale exclusively to our open house guests, well before they are available online later this year.”

In addition to the spectacular Lenten roses, guests can also explore acres of evergreens, cyclamen and one of the world’s largest collections of trilliums.

“At JLBG, we currently grow more than 1,600 different trillium selections,” says Avent. “Our staff has taken a significant number of expeditions throughout the Southeastern United States to study trilliums, and we are currently working with taxonomists to name at least 10 new species from these expeditions.”

Winter Rose Festival and Open Garden and Nursery attendees are welcome to take self-guided garden tours with horticulture experts on-site to answer questions, join the 15-minute “Gardening Unplugged” series with various specialists covering a range of topics each day, and access the open greenhouses for plant purchases. Local food trucks will also be on the grounds for guests to enjoy.

After exploring the gardens, Avent encourages visitors to make a stop at the Panther Branch Rosenwald School – located just one-quarter mile from JLBG on Sauls Road – which will also be open for public tours. The school, now a Wake County Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, was constructed in the Colonial Style in 1926 and recently restored by Juniper Level Missionary Baptist Church. Since then, JLBG has partnered with the school to maintain the property’s landscaping and to build a community garden for local residents.

JLBG’s Winter Rose Festival and Open Garden and Nursery event are open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.