Helleborus x hybridus feature flowers in a wide range of colours, including the prettiest of rose pinks
Heavenly
Hellebores
Plant this late-winter favourite for colourful flowers that will lift both spirits and borders. They are easy to grow and the choice is simply better than ever, says Graham Rice
E
VEN in the mildest of winters, February is not the most floriferous month in the garden. Which is why hellebores, blooming reliably in such a huge range of colours and forms, have become must-have plants – perfect for adding just enough cheery brightness to take us through late winter and into spring. It all started with Helleborus orientalis. Native to Turkey and the Caucasus, in the wild, the humble lenten rose is pretty unremarkable, coming in white and pinkish tones, and white with spots – all often unevenly shaped and streaked in green. The first improvements came around 50 years ago, with the work of legendary hellebore breeder Helen Ballard, who produced plants with larger, more symmetrical flowers. In the decades that followed she, along with fellow enthusiasts including Elizabeth Strangman, took development forward in leaps and bounds – although, given 24 AMATEUR GARDENING 1 FEBRUARY 2020
that propagation by division is so slow, something that has held back the availability of the best ones. Until relatively recently, good named forms tended to be scarce and expensive – a fact that, perversely, only increased our fascination with them. Of course, they can be raised from seed but, unless All shapes and colours pollinated by hand, plants Today we have hellebores are unlikely to come true. with flowers in shapes To increase the vase life of Seed that falls around from bowls to stars, in hellebores, try ‘sealing’ the existing plants often every colour imaginable, cut stems by plunging the germinates prolifically; including pretty picotees ends into boiling water for however, the flowers on and veined forms, and 30 seconds before you the resulting seedlings are even some in slate blue. arrange them. rarely the same as those Plus an increasing range of that feature on their parents. doubles and anemoneThe best nurseries have centred types. The constant refined the art of growing true-to-colour stream of improvements has captured plants from seed by carefully handour imagination, and there’s often quite pollinating selected parent plants; these a scramble for the best plants when may be given cultivar names such as specialist nurseries open their doors. ‘White Lady’, or they may be listed The one downside to hellebores is
that hellebores take two or three years to flower from seed, that’s perhaps not the most appropriate description to use. These were then crossed with other hellebore species to produce purples, reds and yellows – the plants we now know as H. x hybridus.
