Plant of the Month - Hellebore
Long blooming & ornamental.
Plant: Hellebore (Helleborus orientalis)
In the dead of winter, the only colour you’ll see in the Entally gardens is from the hellebores! An ornamental flower with a long blooming period, you may know these as the Winter Rose. Their colour palette ranges from creamy whites, pinks and yellows, to dark magenta and plum shades, and are a part of the Ranuculaceae family of perennials.
Hellebores are easy to care for and are brilliant ground covers in shady areas under trees & other foliage. Best planted in cooler areas, they love shade in summer and sun in winter – and they can withstand frosts! At Entally, our hellebores grow and thrive in the hedged gardens beds alongside the entry driveway, around the West Lawn, in the Walled Garden, and in the Pond Garden beds under the massive oak tree. The ideal time to plant is in early autumn, if buying seedlings or larger plants, to get them established before winter.
Hellebores can be grown easily from seed, and once planted, you will find they self-seed excellently after flowering finishes. If you want to transplant them, do it when the seedlings are young, just a few centimetres tall, as they don’t like their roots to be disturbed. Alternatively, once your plants have reached a decent size, you can dig up & divide hellebores in autumn or early spring. Ensure you have a large amount of the root mass out of the ground before you break apart the clumps, and this will help prevent transplant shock.
When in bloom, the hellebore has stunning open cup-shaped flowers on long stalks, with prominent stamens – with over 17 varieties, the flowers can be spotted, striped, mottled, or solid colour, depending on variety. The flowers last from winter through to early spring, and are mostly single with five petals, but can come in a few double petalled varieties too.
In early to mid-spring, once flowering is over, cut the dead & dying foliage back to ground level. You will see new foliage growing already, so be careful to only remove the very old leaves. Mulch in summer to keep the roots cool, and ensure the foliage is shaded and doesn’t scorch in the summer sun. Feed with fertiliser in late autumn, to boost the production of flowers.
And what to do with these Winter Roses? The blooms look great in vases, but tend to droop severely after a few days. A stunning option is to remove the stems, and display floating in a shallow bowl of water. The perfect dinner table centrepiece!