Snow QUEENS

Hellebores will dazzle, even in the depths of winter

- CHRIS MORLEY

‘Dorothy’s Dawn’

Cold comfort

One of the most popular winter flowers, hellebores are tough cookies that burst into flower in early winter, even when the ground is frost-hard or blanketed in snow. Their ability to bloom when most other plants are dormant is especially welcome for insect foragers, such as bumblebees, who need nectar pit stops to keep airborne. Added to that, hellebores are long-lived, easy to grow, and come in a bewitching selection of colours and patterns.

H. argutifolius

Italian style

In January, the architectural Corsican hellebore (H. argutifolius AGM) holds aloft clusters of pale-green, saucer-shaped flowers up to 5cm across. While the flowers are striking and exotic, the semi-evergreen foliage is equally alluring – jade green, with holly-like, prickled edges. Reaching up to 90cm, it draws the eye in the middle of a border, or lights up a woodland corner.

‘Yellow Lady’

Oriental glam

For large flowers with fascinating patterns – spots, stripes, freckles – the oriental hellebores (H. x hybridus) come up trumps. Colours range from pure white to acid green and sunshine yellow, rose pink to blackberry, in single or double flowers. Here are a few fancy favourites: