Hellebores are among the most undemanding and beautiful of winter stars, making an effect from January through March and beyond.
If you have a few varieties in your garden, you can let nature take its course and as the plants intermix you may get your very own unique hybrid
hellebore.
Hellebores are easy to grow in most soil types and superb in difficult, shady spots under trees, associating well with naturalised spring flowers like snowdrops, narcissus, hardy cyclamen, primroses and crocus.
Ashwood Nurseries is holding a
Hellebore Weekend on February 14 and 15.
There really is something especially magical when you stumble across a
hellebore braving blooming on a dull winter's morning when almost everything around still sleeps under winters spell.
His symptoms included low blood pressure, a slow heart rate and muscular weakness - all synonymous with
hellebore poisoning.
ANYONE venturing to open garden events at this time of year should be on the lookout for
hellebores in flower, bringing colour to herbaceous borders or providing contrast to snowdrops and daffodils in woodland settings.
At flowering time, to help the blooms look their best, cut off any torn leaves but remember that
hellebores are normally for admiring from a safe distance - all parts of the plants are poisonous.
Or you could create a colourful winter border by combining your
hellebores with wood anemones in blues and white, blue scillas, dainty early daffodils, pulmonaria and primroses.
One suggestion that can work well is to combine Cornus with
hellebores, for example Helleborus foetidus.
Hellebores must be one of the longest flowering plants in the garden -they can last for almost two months before you finally get fed up with them and start dead heading.