Hellebores

Many of my friends and clients urged me to blog about the wonderful Hellebores we had in our booth at the MidAm show, so finally here it is. The most interesting thing, I soon found out, was how much I didn't know about Hellebores. I had three plants that I carried from show to show that were in bloom the whole time. That's right, January thru February and they were blooming. The variety was 'Pink Frost' from the Gold Collection. At one point I explained to someone how wonderful it was that even though the flower petals had fallen it still looked like it had a flower on it. Well here's what I found out, "The flowers have five "petals" (actually sepals) surrounding a ring of small, cup-like nectaries (petals modified to hold nectar). The sepals do not fall as petals would, but remain on the plant, sometimes for many months." to quote wikipedia.

Sometimes referred to as 'Christmas Rose' or 'Lenten Rose', hellebores are the stars of the late winter/early spring garden. Plants generally bloom between December and March in cultivation, though some begin earlier, and others continue into April and May, particularly in gardens with colder spring climates. Nearly every garden has a spot for hellebores, and the plants will thrive in many different environments. Still, they remain unknown to many gardeners despite their toughness, beauty, hardiness, and wonderful habit of blooming in winter when most other plants remain dormant. I used this description from the website http://www.hellebores.org since the publisher describes it so perfectly.

These photos taken March 11th are of Hellebores 'Pink Frost'. I love the more upright flowers, the deep rich leaf color and reddish stems. I should mention that they are in a minimally heated greenhouse.