Bloom! Opens April 15th! Come See Our Hellebores

Posted on April 10, 2017

Bloom opens in just a week! Mark your calendar for Saturday, April 15th.  We’ll be showing off plenty of hellebores (Lenten Rose).

They were smuggled into Babylon in a mule’s hoof and used to poison Alexander the Great. The Roman natural historian Pliny records that black hellebore was used as a fumigant in the ritual purification of houses as well as the magical protection of cattle. Hellebore continued to be used in the Middle Ages to purge the body of black bile; melancholia and madness were attributed to an excess of this bodily humor. It could also be laid on to treat skin diseases, inserted into the ear to cure deafness, and, mixed with vinegar, used as a mouthwash to heal toothaches.

Hellebores are the harbingers of spring, blooming for six weeks or more beginning in late winter. They are often flowering during the Christian season of Lent, from which they get their common name, Lenten Rose. This is the perfect plant for naturalizing in moist, woodland areas where its extensive root system will spread as far as it is allowed.

Shade-loving, deer-resistant, often evergreen. Most of all, we love them for their elegant beauty.

We’ve chosen some of our favorites to showcase at Bloom! in April. Here’s a sneak preview:

 

Candy Love

‘Candy Love’ makes a compact 20″ wide clump of dark green deer-resistant leaves, highlighted by red veins in spring. The clumps are topped, starting in late winter, with massive clusters of 15″ stalks ending in obscenely huge 3.5″ wide pink-tinged white flowers that age chocolate.

 

 

HGC Champion

This new selection produces clusters of rosy cream buds that open to outward facing, 2½-3”, creamy white flowers.  It is an early bloomer, flowering from January into March. Its shiny, dark green foliage contrasts nicely with the light colored blooms.

 

Ivory Prince

This beautiful hellebore was selected by the breeder for its vigorous growth rate, uniform crop production, and compact, upright habit. From late winter through mid-spring, rich burgundy-pink buds open to beautiful ivory blossoms that take on rose and chartreuse tones as they age. This selection has particularly attractive dark green foliage with silver veining which remains compact as it matures.

 

 

Penny’s Pink

This hellebore strain features single blooms that emerge bright, mauve-pink maturing to deeper pink. Leaves are blue-green and marbled in pink. Site these where they will stay for many years, since the plants resent being disturbed. Trim the old leaves to the ground in late winter before the buds emerge, to allow the flowers maximum impact.

Pink Frost

This sturdy hybrid forms a low mound of leathery evergreen silvery-green leaves with red stems. Large outfacing single soft-pink flowers appear in early spring, gradually aging burgundy-red.

Snow Love
This hellebore hybrid is sturdy and vigorous. The leathery evergreen leaves have a powdery-grey finish. Big, outfacing white blooms are held well above the foliage, developing a greenish tinge as they mature.

Cinnamon Snow
This sturdy hellebore hybrid is gorgeous both in leaf and in flower. It forms a low mound of leathery, evergreen, dark green leaves. Pink buds appear in early spring opening to large, outfacing, creamy-white flowers that are streaked rose and cinnamon. Petals are dark cinnamon rose on the reverse.

Blue Lady
Plants produce bushy clumps of thick, leathery evergreen leaves. Flower stalks appear in early spring, bearing showy cup-shaped blooms. This strain features deep plum-purple flowers, sometimes reddish on the edges. Site these where they will stay for many years, since the plants resent being disturbed.

Jacob
This Hellebore forms a low mound of leathery evergreen green leaves. Large, outfacing, slightly fragrant, single, pure white flowers appear earlier than most, mid November through January. Flowers gradually age to a light green and in cooler temperatures are tinted pink.