Heavenly Hellebores

Plant this late-winter favourite for colourful flowers that will lift both spirits and borders. They are easy to grow and the choice is simply better than ever, says Graham Rice

- Graham Rice

EVEN in the mildest of winters, February is not the most floriferous month in the garden. Which is why hellebores, blooming reliably in such a huge range of colours and forms, have become must-have plants – perfect for adding just enough cheery brightness to take us through late winter and into spring.

It all started with Helleborus orientalis. Native to Turkey and the Caucasus, in the wild, the humble lenten rose is pretty unremarkable, coming in white and pinkish tones, and white with spots – all often unevenly shaped and streaked in green. The first improvements came around 50 years ago, with the work of legendary hellebore breeder Helen Ballard, who produced plants with larger, more symmetrical flowers. In the decades that followed she, along with fellow enthusiasts including Elizabeth Strangman, took development forward in leaps and bounds – although, given that hellebores take two or three years to flower from seed, that’s perhaps not the most appropriate description to use. These were then crossed with other hellebore species to produce purples, reds and yellows – the plants we now know as H. x hybridus.

All shapes and colours

Today we have hellebores with flowers in shapes from bowls to stars, in every colour imaginable, including pretty picotees and veined forms, and even some in slate blue. Plus an increasing range of doubles and anemone centered types. The constant stream of improvements has captured our imagination, and there’s often quite a scramble for the best plants when specialist nurseries open their doors.

The one downside to hellebores is that propagation by division is so slow, something that has held back the availability of the best ones. Until relatively recently, good named forms tended to be scarce and expensive – a fact that, perversely, only increased our fascination with them.