STURDY CROWD PLEASER S
Hellebores need little attention and will never let you down
They are dream plants, even for the laziest gardener. hellebores are easy to grow and bloom valiantly through the worst of winter. you can plant most varieties outdoors now and enjoy their flowers for weeks t o come. Garden centres stock modest selections. But specialist growers offer a greater range with richer and more varied colours.
hellebores need little attention, once planted. If happy, they’ll give superb displays every winter, growing larger and prettier each year.
Unlike many perennials, they don’t need dividing regularly. In fact, they resent disturbance. I’ve had plants in the same spot for ten years or more.
The prettiest are known as Oriental hellebores or Lenten roses. They’ve been developed from several species, but most contain genes of white-flowered Helleborus orientalis.
Oriental hybrids come in greens, pinks and purples, darkening almost to black.
Bi-coloured varieties exist, too — often with stipples or dark central blotches.
Older varieties tend to come in muddier shades. Flower shapes are variable, too. But skilled breeders have developed magnificent hellebores, with symmetrical flowers in clean, bright hues. The colour range now includes yellow.
ORIENTAL BEAUTY
Lenten roses are slow and costly to propagate vegetatively. named cultivars are, therefore, scarce and expensive.
They’re quick and easy from seed, though. That’s why breeders offer selected seedlings from named varieties.
These may vary slightly, but for garden use, they’re as good as the parents.
Try ashwoodnurseries.com or visit them in Kingswinford, West Midlands, to find an astounding treasury of plants. Owner John Massey is a world- leading breeder of hellebores.
If you like double blooms, Ashwood offers white elegance Ice or Double Spotted Pale Pink. It also stocks yellows, some with reddish centres — all with shapely flowers.
Favourites include Moorcroft Legacy which has pink flowers with maroon centres and the enchanting Blushing Bride — white flowers edged with plummy pink. Single Ruse Black is boot- polish dark but if that’s too funereal for you, try Pink Perfection.
WINTER ROSES
When your hellebores arrive, or you get them home, don’t put them in a greenhouse or bring them indoors. Plant them out.
All Lenten roses prefer alkaline conditions but will settle in any well-drained soil. They’re fine in sun or part-shade.
If your soil is poorly drained or heavy, enrich it with organic matter whenever possible. That improves fertility, helps with drainage and promotes healthy root development — and not just with Lenten roses.
There are other hellebores, too but few as pretty as the orientals. Christmas rose H. niger produces lovely white flowers — usually long after Christmas.
Our native H. foetidus has shrubby growth, palmate leaves and green goblet-shaped flowers in late winter. The plants are not long-lived but renew themselves by frequently self-sowing.
Corsican H. argutifolius is bigger with prickly leaves and apple-green flower clusters. I’ve teamed that with Euphorbia
characias. But nothing competes with the colourful classy pizzazz of John Massey’s fabulous Lenten roses.