WINTER FLOWERS
Face to face with winter’s most beautiful blooms.
New hellebores
Some flowers are so beautiful up close they deserve to be given pride of place indoors where we can delight in them at eye level, day or night while they’re in bloom.
Flowering in winter and early spring, hellebores are prized for winter bouquets. What’s less known is that although they are primarily thought of as outdoor plants, hellebores can also be enjoyed as indoor plants while in bloom.
As a wonderful winter pickme-up, hellebores look beautiful in a stylish container on a side table or bench top for up to three weeks, after which time they can be planted outdoors to be enjoyed year after year.
Shade loving hellebores are loved not only for their beautiful flowers; they also have extremely attractive evergreen foliage. When cut, the flowers last well in water with little skill needed to achieve a beautiful result in a vase.
Three new hellebores are arriving in garden centres this winter: Hellebore ‘Sophie’s Delight’ has sophisticated ivory coloured blooms with mulberry edges and a touch of lime, held above healthy marbled foliage. Another marbled foliage type, Hellebore ‘Ruby Daydream’ has upright dark burgundy blooms with contrasting yellow stamens.
These plants are the work of decades of careful breeding from the same programme as the wonderful hellebores ‘Annas Red’ and ‘Penny’s Pink’ which have proven to be outstanding garden performers.
For a flower display that comes a little later in the season add Hellebore ‘Cinderella’ to your collection. The mass of ruffled and speckled flowers will enchant you when there’s not much else flowering in the garden. ‘Cinderella’ is an Orientalis hybrid, as are ‘Tutu’ and ‘White Tutu’, where the flowers resemble a ballerina’s tutu.
Landscapers looking for a white hellebore should consider ‘Molly’s White’ which produces a mass of beautiful white flowers with delightful lime accents. This hellebore has performed extremely well in Auckland trials, and also has the bonus of the attractive marbled green foliage when not in flower. Even the spent flower heads have a beauty of their own.