Beautiful Hellebores.

It's cold, snowy, rainy, windy... The time of year where our lovely UK weather throws everything at us. Thankfully theres some respite! 

Hellebores are coming into full flower now, with their uniquely shaped leaves, and stunning tall flower heads that rise up above the foliage putting on a huge display of colour when not much else is!

Hellebores are from the genus of plants called Helleborus of which there are about 20 different species to choose from. As a general rule, Hellebores need rich, well draining soil to grow, and will not flower or possibly grow at all if placed in a dry or waterlogged area. Hellebores also prefer to be situated in light shade, where they are protected from harsh cold winds.

Below are my top picks for the best Hellebores;

The Simple Petal Arrangements Make
For A Stunning Show With H.niger.

Helleborus niger AGM (Christmas Rose) - A stunning variety of Hellebore with dark green, purple looking foliage all year. The flowers appear from late December through to early February and are simple pale pink, or pure white flowers. Reaches a max height and spread of around: 30-50cm's.

An example of a hybrid Hellebore
collection. 'Washfield Doubles' Seed
can be viewed here.

Helleborus x hybridus (Lenten Rose) - Are a hybrids between H.orientalis and other species of the Helleborus family. These hybrids produce an amazing array of flower colours during late winter and early spring.  There are many types of these hybrids, some of which are difficult to obtain.
The height and spread of these plants will vary depending on the hybrid you opt to purchase, but you can expect them to have a similar height and spread to H.niger.

An example of an H.purpurascens flower.

Helleborus purpurascens - This species of Hellebore is a smaller, more clump forming member of the genus. It has dark green leaves, and then single cup shaped white, green, or purple coloured flowers. As stated above, they are more clump forming and only grown to around 30cm, height and spread.

As nice as these plants are, they do come with a health warning as they are an irritant to skin, and can cause sever discomfort if ingested, because of this I would recommend not planting them in gardens where children have access and always wear gloves while handling them.


Jack.

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens Trip - December 2012.

On the 17th December 2012, I went on a visit with college to the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens. Thankfully the weather was dry, and even sunny, so the perfect day for a stroll round some beautiful gardens... The gardens certainly didn't disappoint!

Jermyn's House, showing the climbing
plants growing up it.

Our first stop was Jermyn's House which is a beautiful home situated right in the centre of the gardens, where Sir Harold Hillier himself used to reside. The front of the house is covered in climbing plants which will no doubt look stunning when in flower. The house at the front over looks the magnolia walk again will look stunning in spring, and the heather garden.

The heather garden had some nice colour in it, Callunas, Ericas and many other types of heather it made for an unusual walk as I had never before seen a full heather garden! Betulas (Birch) trees were planted singularly amongst the heather and gave a nice backdrop and an element of height to the otherwise rather short garden area!

A section of the
centenary boarder.

After viewing this area we moved on to the new Centenary Border which was the gardens most ambitious project taking around 2 years to complete and is now the longest double boarder of plants in the entire UK! Even though at this time of the year, the sheer scale of the boarders and the amount of plants used to create them was astonishing, and I would love to go back in the summer and see it in all its glory!

The next area we then went to see was the winter garden, and given the time of year, looked absolutely stunning! The garden was planted with droves of Cornus alba, and Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' which on their own look stunning  but were also underplanted with different types of grasses providing a beautiful contrast of colours!

Cornus alba surrounded by winter grasses.

The garden also had larger shrubs and trees such as bamboo, viburnum and silver birch which provided structure to the garden. As well as these larger trees in the centre was a large turfed area which was surrounded by the beds, again helping to provide structure within the garden. The whole area was incredible.

One of the many winter garden beds.

We just had enough time left after visiting the winter garden to go down and view the pond. This area was really beautiful. Secluded and tucked out the way of the rest of the garden it was a really peaceful area planted up with many water loving plants, trees and other shrubs which made it a really beautiful area to be in.

An overview of the pond area.

There were many other areas of the gardens that I was unable to view as there just was not enough time but just by viewing the areas that I did, I would wholeheartedly recommend a visit, I know I'll be visiting again!

Happy New Year!
Jack.