Hellebores brave the cold

The famous Christmas roses (Helleborus niger, photo above) were the pride of our gardening grandmothers. They are almost dethroned by the hundreds of hybrids from the Eastern hellebores. The Christmas rose opens the ball around December 25, sometimes as early as November for recent varieties. It is above all the Eastern hellebore (Helleborus orientalis) and its multitude of hybrids that enchant us next. They bloom from January, but more commonly in February, and until April. While the other perennials are dormant, the hellebores bloom in large, light corollas amid evergreen, dark green, shiny foliage. They form beautiful clumps and bloom in defiance of frosts and snow.

Oriental hellebores, for lifelong surprises!

They are the easiest to cultivate, and above all they reseed themselves in abundance, surprising us, because they hybridize, if they rub shoulders with other hellebores of different colors and shapes. For great discoveries over the years, fall for your favorites among the myriad available to you, in garden centers, but especially in specialized nurseries. Resulting from various crosses, the hellebores of the East have as their main parent H. orientalis and its subspecies, originating in Turkey. Born from large white flowers shaded with green, have arrived, and are continually arriving, numerous and sumptuous hybrids which are named by color. Their flowers display discreet or surprising hues – pure white, pale or bright pink, slate, pistachio, almost black purple, pale yellow, purple… – taking on faded silk tones over time. Some are simple, pure, bell-shaped or chalice-shaped, almost shy. Others are real jewels, punctuated, spotted, fringed, hemmed, bordered, dotted… Sometimes they are double, like pompoms. They are followed by strange and decorative seeds which give rise to a multitude of babies, to be discovered the following winter, at the foot of the mother plants. One also sometimes finds hellebores from the Orient resulting from seedlings and having been isolated, then multiplied by division of tufts to keep the characters of the chosen hellebores.

And also some essential species

Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose from the Alps, opens in large white flowers shaded with green and covered with golden yellow stamens.

Helleborus argutifolius, long called H. corsicus, because it is native to Corsica and Sardinia, measures up to 1 m in all directions, with generous jade green foliage, dressed in clusters of lime green flowers.

With its webbed foliage, Helleborus foetidus, which is sometimes found in our undergrowth, deserves to be adopted. Its brown stems are surmounted by small jade green bells punctuated with a chestnut border.

Helleborus torquatus, born in Serbia, has variable flowers, sometimes purple almost black with a green heart, other times jade green, veined with purple.

In pot, without worry

These plants do well in pots, provided they are of a good size, between 40 and 50 cm, and drained with gravel or clay pebbles. Fill it three-quarters full of potting soil and a quarter of sand, add two handfuls of compost. Position your plant, fill in the cap, water. Mulch. Each year, in April, clean the clumps of their old leaves, to allow the new ones to arrive, cut off the faded flowers as soon as the seeds have fallen, surface with a good layer of compost. Mulch. In summer, install the pot in front of a wall to the north or under a tree. If all the species and varieties are interesting in containers, reserve those that you buy under the names of the “Victoria” or “Ice” series for this use, because in the ground, they look too artificial.

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