How often do I write about tantalizing flowers stirring up plant lust not easily satisfied? Gardeners are especially vulnerable this time of year, when even the sight of a flower is catnip. Today's column is not a tease, for all these Christmas and Lenten roses, and many more, will be available at Heronswood Nursery on Saturday.
This year's Hellebore Garden Open features a large selection of plants in full bloom, all from Heronswood's own breeding program. Companionable winter bloomers will be on sale, too, so your new hellebores won't be lonesome. My favorite part of the day is the chance to tour the extensive winter gardens, where mature hellebores bloom along with snowdrops, winter iris and the lacy blue-flowering corydalis that the nursery is known for. We all crave garden experiences in mid-winter, and this is one of the finest, particularly if you remember to dress warmly and wear boots. The open is a benefit for the Miller Horticultural Library, so our staff has worked at Heronswood on this weekend for several years, and believe me we've had the full array of weather, from pouring rain to wind and even bright sunshine — sometimes all in the same day. And the joy of it is that the hellebores and their companions are flowering away all the same.
A decade ago most of us had never heard of hellebores, and now they are a mainstay winter perennial. Part of the buttercup family, hellebores are the first thing to bloom in winter. Their flowers are long-lasting (about six weeks), with handsome, often evergreen, foliage. Intense breeding has created many new colors and shapes. They enliven the garden's dullest season, carrying us through until the pulmonaria and spring bulbs start to bloom.
Hellebores are sturdy and easy-care, doing best in partial shade. Most of mine are planted along a front walkway so I can best see them in winter, and where they do just fine in full sun with some supplemental water in summer. Not bothered by slugs or disease, hellebores grow into blooming masses as large as a yard across. They are ideal for skirting winter-blooming shrubs and trees such as witch hazel or star magnolia, and are excellent groundcover even beneath large evergreens, holding their own in dry, rooty conditions.
Care is simple and straightforward. Hellebores appreciate a late-autumn mulch, and a dose of manure helps them flower well. They prefer not to dry out. The many Oriental hybrids benefit from having their old leaves snipped away as flower stalks appear, to rejuvenate the foliage and reveal the flower buds. Be sure to deadhead after flowering if you don't want a great number of seedlings.
Say what you like about their useful evergreen leaves, we of course grow hellebores for their absolutely lovely flowers, which range from purest white through all the shades of pink, yellow and green to deep, dark purple. Pollinating insects love them, too, because the flowers contain plentiful amounts of nectar in a ring of little glands beneath the fluffy stamen. Open and cupped, the blossoms are often dotted with endearing freckles. One of the finest arrangements of any season is simply a few of these flowers floating in a shallow bowl of water.
A few Heronswood specialties to look for:
• Helleborus x hybridus 'Mrs. Betty Ranicar' from Tasmania. It has large frilly flowers in pure white, and when mature carries more than 100 blossoms per plant.
• H. dumetorum, with sprays of green flowers.
• H. orientalis, collected from the mountains of Turkey, with creamy white flowers and unblemished evergreen foliage.
Don't worry about being the first to arrive. The tables will be replenished with choice plants throughout the day.
Now In Bloom
The Corsican hellebore (H. argutifolius) is larger and coarser than many hellebores, but is particularly easy to grow and prefers a sunny location. It has distinctively serrated leaves and clusters of pale green flowers. 'Pacific Frost' is a variegated version with cream-speckled foliage; 'Silver Lace' has leaves tinted silvery-blue.
Valerie Easton is manager at the Miller Horticultural Library. Her new book, "Plant Life: Growing a Garden in the Pacific Northwest" (Sasquatch Books, 2002) is an updated selection of her magazine columns. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com
