Blooming Hellebores
This time of year, anyone who walks around my farm always admires the beautiful hellebore flowers.
Hellebores come in such an artful array of colors, markings and formations, it’s hard not to love these fascinating perennials. Sometimes known as Lenten rose or Christmas rose, these plants are long-lived, easy-to-grow and thrive in shady locations. I’ve had hellebores in my gardens for many years, and I find it so rewarding to have blooms that start in March, and continue through spring until the end of May - to me, hellebores are must-haves for any gardener's collection.
Here are some photos of the hellebores blooming at my farm right now, enjoy.
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- Hellebores are among the earliest perennial flowers to bloom. They are members of the Eurasian genus Helleborus – about 20 species of evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. They blossom during late winter and early spring for up to three months.
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- Hellebores are widely popular because they are easy-to-grow and are able to resist frost. It is common to plant them on slopes or in raised beds in order to see their flowers, which tend to nod.
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- I have many hellebores planted around my farm – under allées, in the gardens across from my pergola, and in various beds near my Winter House. Hellebores prefer partial to full shade during the warmer months but require more sunlight in winter. They do best underneath deciduous trees where they are shaded by foliage in summer but are exposed to full sun after the trees have dropped their leaves in fall.
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- The bright green foliage looks so dramatic against the colors of their blooms. Hellebore foliage is thick, evergreen, and forms a low clump with leaves that are lobed and palm-like.
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- Hellebores get their common name, Lenten rose, from the rose-like flowers that appear in and around the Christian observance of Lent.
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- Here is a dark colored hellebore just about to open. The flowers come in a wide range of colors including shades of maroon, apricot, yellow, green, metallic blue, slate, dusky pink, and white, with or without picotee, spots, and freckles.
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- They also come in a variety of flower forms – single, semi-double, fully double, and anemone.
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- What’s most impressive is their bowl-shaped blooms. This one is light pink and white with dark edges.
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- As new growth stalks emerge, any old or damaged foliage can be trimmed back to the base. We just groomed all the hellebores here at the farm.
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- This hellebore has dark magenta and light green-white blooms with heavy veining.
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- Unlike the blooms of most other flowering plants, hellebore flowers do not consist of petals, but of sepals, which serve to protect the flower.
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- The sepals surround a ring of small, cup-like nectaries which are actually petals modified to hold nectar. The sepals and veins on this hellebore are deeply colored to invite pollinators.
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- These plants are not choosy about their insects, so all types can pollinate the flowers effectively.
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- These plants are also fairly deer and rabbit resistant.
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- Here, one can see the stamens – the long white filaments with bilocular anthers. Each flower can have many stamens.
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- Hellebores can reach up to 36-inches in height and width, so when planting, be sure to position hellebores in protected areas away from winter winds.
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- They are considered slow-growing plants that can take up to 18-months to reach their mature size.
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- After the first year, when the plant is well-established, hellebores are very resistant and require little upkeep.
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- The natural downward facing growth pattern helps protect the blooms from rain, since water sheds well off the sepal backsides.
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- And look how pretty the flowers are when turned up.
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- They like to be watered deeply enough to saturate the root zone but then not watered again until the soil feels dry to the touch. These plants are drought tolerant but quite sensitive to soggy soil.
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- Given the right conditions, hellebores will spread nicely in the garden and look beautiful through the season. Wherever you live, I hope you are able to enjoy some of these early colors of spring.
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