Hellebores brighten gray days of spring
Gardeners greet any plant that blooms in the gray months of winter with joy. Two reliable plants which bloom in winter and early spring are Christmas rose ( Helleborus niger) and Lenten rose ( H. orientalis), commonly known as hellebores. Not true roses, they get their name from single, rose-like flowers. Christmas roser blooms first, close to its namesake, while the other blooms through the Lenten season. Both species have evergreen, leathery leaves and flowers that last through the coldest months and into May. A happy patch of hellebores creates a coarse-textured, weed-inhibiting groundcover. They prefer partial shade but will tolerate nearly full sun to full shade. Soil should be well-drained, but hellebores do well in drier locations, such as under a tree canopy.
The earliest recorded commercial sale of hellebores was by Prince Nursery in Flushing, N.Y., in 1822. Renewed interest and advances in propagation through division, tissue culture and hand pollination have resulted in diverse colors, increased plant vigor, double flowers and larger, more upright blooms. Hellebore flowers bend low to the ground in the early stages of growth and become easier to view as plants mature.
The showy “blooms” are really sepals 2-3½ inches across. The sepals of the Christmas rose are pure white while those of the Lenten rose range from nearly black to dusty pink and chartreuse. They can be solid color, spotted, variegated or veined. Viewing their unique flowers up close as cut flowers can be tricky. Cut in their latter stages, when seed capsules have developed, or cut the flowers very short and float them in a shallow bowl of water.
During the holiday season, Helleborus species are sold under the name Christmas, snow or winter rose. In the Middle Ages, they were known as the oracle flower. Country people put 12 buds in water on Christmas night. Each bud symbolized a month, and the weather for the following year would be forecast based on its appearance. A closed bud meant bad weather, an open one good. As spring approaches, Lenten roses are sold alongside forced spring bulbs. If you
purchase hellebores as seasonal plants, hold them indoors until spring, when danger of frost is gone, then plant in your garden. Resist planting in December, even if temperatures are mild, as soil temperatures are too cold for roots to establish.
When planting, make sure the area where the base of the plant attaches to the roots, also known as the crown, is just slightly buried beneath the soil. Do not plant too deeply as this can hinder flower production.
Hellebores self-sow where they’re happy, so allow the flowers to form seeds if you want them to spread. They can be left undisturbed, but these plants respond well to division in either spring or fall.
Dig the entire clump, rinse away the soil and look for individual junctions of top-growth and roots. These can be pulled apart from the mother plant or carefully sliced away with a serrated knife.
Seedlings are easily moved, but will take about 3 years to bloom. Their flower colors may differ from the original plants as helle-bores hybridize easily.
Spring companion plants include any of the little bulbs, such as snowdrops ( Galanthus), Crocuses, winter aconite ( Eranthis), glory of the snow ( Chionodoxa) and Siberian squill ( Scilla siberica). Hellebores’ bold foliage pairs well with ferns and astilbe in shady parts of the garden and finer groundcovers such as sedums, creeping or woodland phlox and plumbago ( Ceratostigma plumbaginoides).
Aside from cutting back the previous season’s tattered leaves in early spring, hellebores are low-maintenance plants. They are adaptable to many garden locations, relatively free from pest and disease issues and deer-resistant.
Dianne Machesney is a Penn State Master Gardener. This volunteer program supports the outreach mission of Penn State Extension. Have a gardening question? Email it, along with photos, to the Garden Hotline, staffed by the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Allegheny County at alleghenymg@psu.edu. They are answering emails from home.