MUST HAVE plants
With foliage that’s almost as handsome as the delicate flowers themselves, nothing comes close to matching these hardy little perennials that bloom when very little else is flowering
No other plant matches the hellebore for beauty and versatility during those months that span mid-winter to early spring. The lovely perennial blooms offer huge variety and colour, are long-lasting and stand up to winter weather.
Small in stature but big on appeal in so many ways, hellebores are easy to grow in the right conditions, mostly very hardy, and suit many different sites – from borders and raised beds to slopes and containers. Tolerance of partial summer shade makes them ideal for underplanting deciduous trees and shrubs and against hedges, immeasurably brightening the garden floor during the darkest months. Hellebores also provide a valuable source of early nectar and pollen, which is increasingly important now weather conditions are becoming more erratic, with bees now frequently awoken from hibernation by unseasonably mild winter days.
Hellebores comprise nearly 30 species and many hundreds of different forms. Their diversity is partly down to originating from a wide range of geographical locations, and partly due to their great ability to cross-pollinate. In the wild, hellebores are found in many countries including Spain, Turkey, Iran, China, and even the UK with our native Helleborus foetidus. Hundreds of different hellebore forms have been produced by extensive breeding, creating flowers of great beauty and variety with colours ranging from pure white, soft yellow and pale apple-green to many shades of pink and purple, darkest maroon, and almost black. Flower shapes vary from single, semi-double and fully double, and are often beautifully spotted or marked within. Though the naming of hellebores produced by breeding can cause confusion as only those propagated vegetatively (by division or tissue culture) are true named cultivars, as seed-raised ones are not identical. When in doubt, buy hellebores in flower so you can be sure of what you’re getting!
Foliage can be almost as handsome as flowers with some evergreen hellebores that make supremely good border plants, especially when given a reasonable amount of sun, though hardiness varies. H. argutifolius is the largest, most architectural, hardy, and easiest to grow. Meanwhile, H. lividus and H. sternii are beautiful but less hardy.
