Plant of the month
Over the last few years, the Christmas roses and Lenten rose -
Hellebores (Helleborus) - have become incredibly popular despite being
around in gardens for centuries but scarcely noticed.
They have every
right to be loved because they are beautiful, flower without fail, and
being thoroughly promiscuous have independently produced the most wonderful
seedlings.
Helleborus foetidus and H. argutifolius are full of their graceful
jade green flowers before Christmas. But it is the hybrids, some of them
made in the wild, by chance in gardens and by deliberate hybridisation,
that have caught the fancy of gardeners.
The problem with the hellebores is that the vegative propagation of
the deliberate hybrids is very slow and the plants are then expensive.
It
is the seedlings from people like Washfield Nurseries ranging from the
deepest plum purple to pale lemons and creams, often beautifully speckled,
and not too expensive, that have rightly become so popular.
Hellebores are happy in most soils and light shade. They hold their
flowers for many weeks, even being attractive as they fade. They are
pretty well disease-free, unless too many are grown together.
