Colours of the season
Brighten up your garden now with Carol’s expert guide to hellebores
Hellebores are having a renaissance. Thanks to the progress of modern breeding coupled with our desire to enjoy our gardens at all times of the year, they have become one of the most popuar perennials – and are here to stay. Hellebores are easy to grow and undemanding, yet they give so much in return for a modicum of ef fort. From January to May, their beauty shines out. Even when seed has set, their sepals (for they are sepals rather than petals) are persi stent ly handsome, eventual ly becoming green. Their foliage is bold, handsome and evergreen, and in some of the new hybrids the marbled leaves are just as celebrated as the flowers. Hellebores, in the main, are edge of woodland plants. They thrive best in rich, retentive soil and abhor sitting in stagnant ground, with peaty soi l or in wet conditions. But although they will thrive anywhere, hellebores are usually found on alkaline soil. The hellebores that do best in my garden are planted in southfacing raised beds with deep, rich soil. Although they are shaded in the morning, at this time of year they have full sun for the rest of the day. From Apri l/ May onwards, though, perennials and grasses in the same beds grow taller than the clumps of hellebores, putt ing them in the shade unt i l late September. They don’t have the problem of competition from tree roots that besets
Hellebores are undemanding, yet they give so much in return for a modicum of effort
their kin in the shady part of the garden, and they have plenty of light through winter and into early spring.
Perfect partners
They lend themselves to naturalistic schemes and informal plantings and are perfect partners for early-flowering bulbs, pulmonarias and evergreen ferns – it is almost impossible to paint anything other than a serene scene with them. Were hellebores to flower in midsummer they wouldn’t get much of a look- in. Whereas most summer f lowers are gay and vibrant to the point of being obvious, hellebores seduce by subtlety and subterfuge. The colours of their sepals are mult i farious, from the sof test woodpigeon grey to pale apricot or damson, and from leaf green to the deepest black or pure white. They can be striped or spotted, picotee or plain, double or anemone centred or simply single. Almost all plants have evolved methods of successful procreation. In the hurlyburly of the summer garden par ty, hellebores might not get a look-in, but flowering in the bleak midwinter there are few competitors in the pollination stakes.
True, there are fewer pollinators, but the hellebore’s tactic is to produce rich nectar and pollen galore to make it the go-to plant for needy bumblebees. Most hellebores have shy, downwardfacing f lowers. Not only does this protect the pollen but it also offers shelter to the attendant insect while it eats and drinks. There have been attempts to breed hellebores with flowers that face upwards. Why? What arrogance to at tempt to modify characteristics that have taken aeons to develop! One of the most alluring aspects of growing hellebores is the way in which you have to participate with them, gently turning up their faces to appreciate the uniqueness of each individual. Many years ago, I had a hip replacement in January. Midway through February I was walking well enough to move around the garden on crutches, but was hugely frustrated not to be able to see the secrets of our hellebores – Heath Robinson crutch modifications came to mind with mirrors attached just above ground level – but in the end I just enjoyed the blooms in the context of the sombre winter garden. One of our policies at Glebe Cottage is to use paler coloured hellebores among the shrubs and trees on the east side of the garden: whites, yellows, light pinks and peachy hues that show up among the dun leaves and drab mulch that cover the ground. That’s not to say we avoid darker flowers or rich crimson sepals, but we tend to use them in the raised beds at the bottom of the garden where you can better examine and appreciate their mysterious depths.
Special species
The most familiar, and widely grown hel lebores are forms of Helleborus x hybridus, Helleborus orientalis as used to be, or in the vernacular, ‘the Lenten rose’. It is in its glory long before Lent – even when Easter comes early – but its common name was presumably given to distinguish it from ‘The Christmas Rose’, Helleborus niger, which flowers even earlier, sometimes in December, but usually in January There are just two hellebore species native to the Brit ish Isles, Helleborus viridis and Helleborus foetidus. I was lucky enough to meet them both on the same day while filming our ‘ Wild f lowers and their Cultivated Cousins’ strand for Gardeners’ World. In addition, there is a host of dif ferent hellebores with very mixed parentage now avai lable to gardeners, offering the added attractions of ornamental evergreen foliage, masses of richly coloured f lowers and robust constitutions. One of the features that makes hellebores so prized by gardeners is that they are so easy to cross-breed. They will hybridise by themselves, without any assistance from the gardener, creating new colours and strains. Or you can step in – no special skills required – to help create plants that are unique to your garden ( see left). And when these new seedlings f lower for the first time, in the depths of the winter gloom, what a privilege to be the first person ever to gaze at that flower. No wonder hellebores have made themselves indispensable to anyone who wants their garden to shine at this dreary time of year.
A Chelsea Flower Show first…
If you would like to appreciate hellebores’ enormous diversity, as well as enjoy their true beauty, Ashwood Nurseries will be attempting to hold back nature to stage the first- ever display stand of hellebores at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May this year. Fingers crossed for them!
One of the features that make hellebores so prized by gardeners is that they are easy to cross-breed