{"id":3352,"date":"2021-03-29T05:10:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T13:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3352"},"modified":"2021-03-29T05:10:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T13:10:37","slug":"hellebores-uup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/hellebores-uup\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellebores Uup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hellebore-self<\/a>It is hard to get down on your stomach in the garden at any time of year, but especially so when the ground is cold or damp.\u00a0 Clearly flowering plants don\u2019t care about your comfort, because the best way to see some of them is from underneath.\u00a0 Snowdrops, with their drooping, winged flowers are one.\u00a0 Hellebores\u2014especially those known botanically as Helleborus x hybridus, Helleborus orientalis, or more commonly, Lenten roses–are another.<\/p>\n

You might emulate English garden writer Beverley Nichols and solve the problem by digging up an entire clump, taking the clump indoors and positioning it on top of a small mirror.\u00a0 This is effective, but almost as much trouble as getting down on your belly, when you consider the eventual need to replant the clump in the same cold soil from which you removed it.<\/p>\n

If all that digging seems like too much work, you could harvest the nicest of the Lenten rose blooms in your garden and float them in a shallow, water-filled bowl.\u00a0 Magazine stylists do this all the time.\u00a0 In my experience floating arrangements look great for about 24 hours\u2014long enough for a dinner party–but fade quickly after that.<\/p>\n

While digging clumps or floating flowers may improve your morale, neither option will do anything to lift the nodding hellebore faces in the garden.<\/p>\n

Some gardeners deal with that by relying on hybrids of Christmas rose or Helleborus niger.\u00a0 These bloom even earlier than Lenten rose, and certain varieties, notably the Gold Collection hellebores, originally bred in Germany by Josef Heuger of Heuger International, feature outward facing blooms.\u00a0 The Gold Collection Christmas roses are often sold in midwinter or early spring as mature, blooming plants. \u00a0I have even found them in my local grocery store. The hybrids, with names including \u2018Pink Frost\u2019, \u2018Merlin\u2019 and \u2018Cinnamon Snow\u2019 sport large, outward-facing flowers in white, cream or shades of pink.\u00a0 The range of colors is smaller than that of Lenten roses, but the flower quality makes up for it.<\/p>\n

Of course, if you love the later-blooming Lenten roses, you could simply admire the flower shapes and colors from above and let the flower \u201cfaces\u201d take care of themselves.\u00a0 The early spring bees can find the pollen no matter what you do.<\/p>\n

Still, elevating the gardener\u2019s morale is important at all times, and elevating the hellebore blooms might help. I would advise seeking out hellebore varieties with outward-looking faces.\u00a0 Breeders are creating more and more of them.<\/p>\n

Consider the Frostkiss hellebore series, trademarked, as all new plant introductions seem to be now.\u00a0 These may not have Helleborus orientalis in their parentage, but are generally grouped with Lenten roses.\u00a0 All feature outward-facing flowers.\u00a0 While the color range-white, pinks, red\u2014is not as great as some Lenten rose offerings, the flowers stand out, as do the purplish stems and white-veined foliage.\u00a0 Available varieties include \u2018Molly\u2019s Kiss\u201d, in white; \u2018Moondance\u2019, with greenish white blooms; \u2018Penny\u2019s Pink\u2019, in dusty rose; \u2018Glenda\u2019s Gloss\u2019, with greenish-white petals edged in purple; \u2018Cheryl\u2019s Shine\u2019, featuring pale pink blooms with darker pink edges; \u2018Pippa\u2019s Purple\u2019, which is actually a very deep pink with darker freckles; and \u2018Anna\u2019s Red\u2019, which is a true red.\u00a0 All are single-petaled varieties and share the carefree nature and long bloom period that marks all hellebores.\u00a0 As with other hellebores, deer don\u2019t like them, and that increases your chances of actually being able to enjoy them in the garden.<\/p>\n

\u2018Blue Lady\u2019, which is not part of the Frostkiss series, is also outward facing, with deep rose petals that give way to darker rose close to the flowers\u2019 centers.<\/p>\n

Now that breeders have broken though the outward-facing barrier, hellebore lovers can probably expect more of the same in the coming years.\u00a0 Outward facing doubles would be lovely, as would the yellow and peach-toned varieties that ornament assortments of the more traditional, downward-facing Lenten roses.<\/p>\n

Whether your Lenten roses face out or down, all require light shade, rich soil and moisture during dry spells and hot summers.\u00a0 In older hellebore varieties, large palmate leaves sometimes overwhelm the shy, downward-facing flowers.\u00a0 Newer varieties are more likely to feature blooms that stand above the foliage. All hellebores look better when the mature, winter-ravaged leaves are removed in the spring.<\/p>\n

I would never advocate getting rid of your downward-facing hellebores, because they are beautiful and useful in their own right.\u00a0 If you have the space and inclination, mix in some of the upturned ones and revel in the best of both worlds while you await the fusillade of later blooming spring flowers.<\/p>\n

The Frostkiss series is available wherever Monrovia plants are sold.\u00a0 Find local Monrovia retailers by using the tool available at https:\/\/www.monrovia.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Click on the \u201cFind a Garden Center\u201d tab at the top of the page.\u00a0 \u2018Blue Lady\u2019 is available at Annie\u2019s Annuals, 740 Market Ave.
\nRichmond, CA 94801; 1.888.266.4370; www.anniesannuals.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog available.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is hard to get down on your stomach in the garden at any time of year, but especially so when the ground is cold or damp.\u00a0 Clearly flowering plants don\u2019t care about your comfort, because the best way to see some of them is from underneath.\u00a0 Snowdrops, with their drooping, winged flowers are one.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2],"tags":[2487,2485,2488,32,2484,509,1087,2483,2486,551],"class_list":["post-3352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-evergreen-groundcovers","tag-frostkiss-hellebores","tag-hellebore-breeding","tag-hellebores","tag-helleborius-orientalis","tag-helleborus-niger","tag-helleborus-x-hybridus","tag-lenten-roses","tag-outward-facing-hellebores","tag-spring-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3354,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3352\/revisions\/3354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}