There's a lot happening in the world of hellebores at the moment; from new colour breaks to extended flowering seasons and novel forms to delight gardeners, says plantsman Graham Rice
Thanks to breeding work over the past few decades, Lenten roses now come in exciting new flower forms. They’re all now referred to as
H. ×
hybridus, reflecting the fact that a number of different species are in their background. And at last, Christmas roses (
Helleborus niger) really will flower at Christmas, and there’s a host of superb new hybrids, some of them entirely unexpected.
Dependable doubles such as the 12 in the Winter Jewels series, which come in a wonderful array of shades, are simply captivating, and many people also appreciate the anemone-centred types with a dense cluster of half-formed petals in the centre.
You can now depend on Christmas roses flowering at Christmas, or sometimes even in November, as many of those in the Helleborus Gold Collection are dependably early. Look out in particular, for ‘HGC Jacob’ and ‘HGC Josef Lemper’ (see photo).
Hybrid vigour
We now also have the first widely-available cross between these two species. Walberton’s Rosemary (‘Walhero’) brings together pink colouring and robust growth of H. × hybridus and the outward facing flowers of H. niger. It’s a prolific and vigorous plant
. This season’s new 'Harvington Rebekah' is similar.
Hybrids between H. niger and the Corsican hellebore, H. argutifolius, the Majorcan hellebore, H. lividus, and the hybrid between the Corsican and the Majorcan species, H. × sternii, have also become much more widely available and combine impressive evergreen foliage - often prettily marbled - with flowers in a range of colours from white through pinks to deep red.
Look out for ‘Anna’s Red’, ‘Bob’s Best’, 'Ivory Prince', ‘Penny’s Pink’, ‘Pink Frost’, ‘Ruby Glow’, ‘HGC Silvermoon’ (see photo), and ‘Winter Moonbeam’, ‘Winter Sunshine’ and others as they come on the market.
Finally another, very unexpected hybrid to try, H. × sahinii ‘Winterbells’ is a hybrid between the stinking hellebore, H. foetidus, and H. niger. It’s very hardy and oddly, considering its name, it sometimes flowers in midsummer.
These are exciting times for hellebore enthusiasts, with so many impressive new forms to try.
*Please note, this article was first published in 2015. For the latest advice on hellebores please visit our Popular plants pages.
Get RHS advice on cultivating hellebores
Find hellebore suppliers in the RHS Plantfinder
