{"id":3900,"date":"2023-02-13T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2023-02-13T08:00:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:00:52","slug":"stinking-hellebore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/stinking-hellebore\/","title":{"rendered":"Stinking Hellebore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Helleborus<\/a>Not everyone gets excited about an evergreen, perennial plant with pale green flowers and a questionable fragrance.\u00a0 Still, times being what they are, anything that is alive, blooming and not related to politics is a cause for celebration.\u00a0 That is why I am so delighted to see the \u201cstinking hellebore\u201d or Helleborus foetidus preparing to bloom in my back garden.<\/p>\n

Some plants have lovely, evocative common names like \u201ckiss-me-over-the-garden-gate\u201d.\u00a0 Other common names are biblical, like \u201cJacob\u2019s ladder.\u201d\u00a0 Some even shade towards the lascivious, like the lovely Chinese peony that I saw advertised some time ago.\u00a0 Its name allegedly translated to \u201ctipsy imperial concubine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Helleborus foetidus\u2019 common names are purely descriptive\u2014possibly a little too much so.\u00a0 At various times and in various places it has been known as \u201cstinking hellebore\u201d, \u201cstinkwort\u201d, and \u201cdungwort\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cBear\u2019s foot hellebore\u201d, which describes the shape of the leaves rather than the scent of the flowers, is a little less disagreeable.<\/p>\n

So what is all the unpleasant hyperbole about?\u00a0 Helleborus foetidus is a medium-size plant, growing one to two feet tall and about a foot wide.\u00a0 Its thick, branching stalks give rise to individual stems bearing numerous, deeply dissected leaves that are generally medium to dark green.\u00a0 Round, pale green buds appear at the tops of the stems, surrounded by protective leaf collars.\u00a0 In my garden, those buds are ripening rapidly right now, and if the weather cooperates, they should open into five-petaled flowers as early as Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

The flowers look like green buttercups, which is logical, since all hellebores, stinking or not, belong to the Ranunculaceae or buttercup family.\u00a0 The blooms do not have a pronounced fragrance, though you will get a whiff of the characteristic foetidus odor when you cut a stem.<\/p>\n

\u201cStinking\u201d is an overstatement, at least to my nose.\u00a0 The smell is not skunky or sulfurous like rotten eggs.\u00a0 It is hard to characterize, but it is just unpleasant enough to tell you that you should not crush plant parts or put your nose too close to cuttings.<\/p>\n

The silver lining to the malodorous Helleborus foetidus cloud is that deer and other garden varmints find the scent completely unappealing.\u00a0 If you plant a stinking hellebore, nothing will disturb it unless you inadvertently lop it off with your string trimmer.<\/p>\n

Though the stinking hellebore has been grown in North America since at least the early 1800\u2019s, it is not native. Western Europe is its home stomping ground, and most likely it arrived with early colonists and took hold in their gardens.\u00a0 \u201cTook hold\u201d is probably an understatement, since the plants are prolific and self-seed readily.<\/p>\n

I believe that I planted a single specimen an indeterminate number of years ago, and the garden has never had less than ten plants since then.\u00a0 They hold up well through the winters, and start blooming any time from the end of January in mild years, to early March in years when winter is severe.<\/p>\n

Stinking hellebore is harder to find commercially than its more popular and less stinky relatives, Helleborus niger, the \u201cChristmas rose\u201d, and Helleborus x orientalis, the \u201cLenten rose\u201d.\u00a0 Its relative lack of popularity also extends to plant breeders, but one variety \u2018Wester Flisk\u2019, is sometimes offered by retailers.\u00a0 Bred in Scotland, \u2018Wester Flisk\u2019 bears slender, gray-green leaves, and features red-tinged stalks and stems.\u00a0 The slightly nodding green flowers may also be a bit red around the edges.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t grown this variety, but the appearance\u2014especially of the leaves–seems more refined than that of the species.<\/p>\n

Stinking hellebores like a shady spot, consistent moisture and, if possible, a little protection from cold winds.\u00a0 In groups the plants make decent evergreen ground covers, though in truth, I prefer Helleborus orientalis for that purpose.\u00a0 Like other hellebores, the plants\u2019 appearance benefits from removal of the tatty year-old foliage.<\/p>\n

We all know, and may even be related to, people that are like Helleborus foetidus\u2014generally acceptable, but with a single off-putting trait.\u00a0 I can overlook the stinking hellebore\u2019s one off-putting trait because of the excitement I feel when I see the flower buds in spring.\u00a0 While the crocuses and snowdrops shine in diminutive splendor, the hellebores stand tall and proud, ready to take on the world.\u00a0 That trumps a little unpleasant odor any day.<\/p>\n

You can find \u2018Wester Flisk\u2019 at Digging Dog Nursery, 31101 Middle Ridge Road,
\nAlbion, CA 95410<\/a>; (707) 937-1130<\/a>; wwwdiggingdog.com.\u00a0 Print catalog available.<\/p>\n

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Not everyone gets excited about an evergreen, perennial plant with pale green flowers and a questionable fragrance.\u00a0 Still, times being what they are, anything that is alive, blooming and not related to politics is a cause for celebration.\u00a0 That is why I am so delighted to see the \u201cstinking hellebore\u201d or Helleborus foetidus preparing to … 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":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[2839,2487,1146,32,2838,2840,2837],"class_list":["post-3900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-bears-foot-hellebore","tag-evergreen-groundcovers","tag-foul-smelling-plants","tag-hellebores","tag-helleborus-foetidus","tag-spring-blooming-perennials","tag-stinking-hellebore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900","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=3900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3902,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions\/3902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}