Winter warmers

Want colour in your winter borders? Hellebores are the answer – and they have the bonus of gorgeous evergreen foliage, says Tamsin Hope Thomson

- Tamsin Hope Thomson

HELLEBORES are the perfect plant to give your winter borders a lift. When little else is flowering, they bring long-lasting colour to otherwise bare earth beneath trees and shrubs. However, this winter interest isn’t confined to flowers, as hellebores also have attractive evergreen foliage that adds impact all year round. Even when the plants are not in flower, the large leaves will add useful groundcover.

Easy to look after

The common name for the hellebore is the Lenten or Christmas rose because of their flowering time, and once established they are easy to look after. If you needed other reasons to add these popular flowers to borders and containers, they also provide early nectar for bees and can cope in dappled and partially shady areas.

Many hellebores have flowers that face down, which helps them cope with rain and bad weather, and most varieties will flower for months. They come in shades of white, cream, pink, yellow and red through to purple and near black. The choices on offer don’t stop there. As well as plain single types, you can buy hellebores that are spotted, striped or picotee where the edges of the flowers are a different shade to the base, as well as double or anemone centred.

Good planting partners

Although many hellebores are compact, reaching around 1-2ft (30-60cm) tall, there are taller varieties available, such as H. foetidus, known as the stinking hellebore, which reach just over 39in (1m). This one, and H. argutifolius that is another tall species, make a great addition to the middle of the border where they’ll add architectural value.