Start Your Hellebores

Elisabeth — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:40:00 GMT

In my Zone 6 garden, the last frost date is still several weeks away, but things are heating up. Over the last few years I have invested in hellebores. Now I have one large Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), seven or eight named and unnamed Lenten roses (Helleborus orientalis hybrids) and three "stinking hellebores" (Helleborus foetidus). All are either in bud or in full bloom, with the Christmas rose leading the way.

Today I performed the one act that is indispensable for hellebores in spring--I clipped away the semi-dead, ratty old leaves that obscured the new growth and emerging flower buds. Now the plants are free to unfurl their fresh foliage and open their petals. Garden visitors can actually see the cream, pink, chartreuse or dusky maroon blooms and the baby leaves, which right now are the same pale green as fiddlehead ferns.

At the moment, the daffodils, tulips and other flashy spring bloomers are just sprouting, so the hellebores are the divas of the garden. Removing their tattered winter cloaks lets them take their rightful place in the spotlight.

Hellebores

Elisabeth — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:04:00 GMT

The late garden writer Cassandra Danz, aka "Mrs. Greenthumbs," once wrote that all daylilies look orange from six feet away. My college-age daughter says something similar about hellebores. In her opinion all hellebore flowers look green from two feet away.

Both Ms. Danz and my daughter have a point. A great many daylilies do look orange and many hellebores of the orientalis type have a definite green cast. But in the last ten years, advances in breeding have changed the hellebore picture. Now Helleborus orientalis hybrids are available in single and double forms and in freckled or unfreckled shades of cream, pink, rose, red, purple, nearly gray and, of course, pale green. Breeders are working hard to produce cultivars with upturned rather than downward-facing flowers.

Unlike my daughter I love hellebores. The white-flowered Helleborus niger, or Christmas rose, is the first plant to bloom every year in my garden. Depending on the severity of the winter, I start looking for the first buds about now. In fact, today when I pushed aside the wet leaves surrounding the hellebore I saw that the flower buds are already beginning to emerge. When the buds get large enough, I clip one off, bring it into the house and float it in a small saucer of water for a little taste of spring. Once the Christmas rose's flowers open, they last outdoors for about six weeks, slowly aging to pink. The end of their bloom cycle coincides with the appearance of the first H. orientalis flowers. While all of this is happening, the somewhat more subtle Helleborus foetidus or stinking hellebore brings forth its clusters of small, green, nodding blooms. The plant is only "stinky" if its parts are crushed, so it is usually fine in civilized company.

Hellebores are beautiful, deer-proof and comfortable in light to moderate shade. Once established, they are easy to care for, though thorough mulching helps conserve the moisture they prefer. Orientalis types tend to cling to their careworn old leaves, so clip them off in the spring to enhance the plants' looks and accentuate the flowers and new leaves.

As a lover of all things yellow, I have set my sights on one of the new generations of yellow-flowered orientalis hybrids. I just hope it doesn't end up looking green from two feet away. I'll never hear the end of it.

Growing Wise : hellebores

Start Your Hellebores

Hellebores