Beautiful hellebores

Undemanding, winter-hardy, with strikingly beautiful flowers, hellebores are a garden must-have that provide early colour in the garden,says Louise Curley

- Louise Curley

ANY plant that braves the chill of winter is prized by gardeners, but for sheer flower power and striking beauty hellebores are a garden must-have. These elegant perennials, including understated species and flamboyant hybrids, flower for months on end as the garden emerges from the depths of winter into the first warming rays of spring.

Most hellebore species are native to Europe, with two – Helleborus foetidus and H. viridis – growing wild in Britain. They typically grow on the edge of woodland in dappled shade, thriving in rich, moist, well-drained soil, so they’re ideally suited in the garden under deciduous trees and shrubs.

Different flower forms and colours

Hellebores hybridise easily, which has resulted in an array of plants with different flower forms, colours and patterns. There are single flowers with open centres, semi-doubles with a ring of small petals in the centre of each flower, and doubles with ruffled layers of multiple sepals – the coloured parts of hellebore blooms are known botanically as sepals, not petals. Some are purely one colour, while others are speckled, blotched or have veining, and those known as picotees have sepals edged in another colour. Flowers can be cupshaped, open and flat or have a more star-shaped form. Generally, the flowers have a downwards droop, which is believed to be an evolutionary trait so that rain or snow doesn’t collect in the centre of the flower causing it to rot. It also protects the pollen and provides shelter to feeding insects.