By Steve Chamberlain
Contributing Writer
I’ve written about hellebores, Lenten roses, before. They have the dual advantages for Central New York shade gardens that they are 100 percent deer resistant and they bloom early and tolerate repeated episodes of freezing and thawing. The only drawbacks have been that they don’t like to be transplanted when mature (still true) and they have been relatively expensive as perennials go (no longer so true). Now that producers have perfected propagation of hellebores by tissue culture, there are plenty to go around and more and more gardeners are becoming familiar with, and enamored of, these interesting plants.
Although the range of hellebores of all types has exploded and there are many very attractive single-flowered cultivars, in this column, I’m going to focus on double hellebores. These appear to have more than one layer of petals (actually sepals) in their flowers. Whereas flower petals tend to be short-lived, the underlying sepals persist for weeks and weeks. Hellebore breeders are therefore selecting for colored and variegated sepals. Some of the first double hellebores were “droopy” because of the heavier flower and not outstandingly vigorous; however, all that has changed.
The first double hellebore that really stood out in my garden was Kingston Cardinal. The bloom stems were upright and the double flowers were a dark raspberry color. This plant is now the size of a bushel basket and delights every spring. Now there are many others with similar great attributes. Some may be available locally in garden centers, but I would consider finding and purchasing them online to be certain they are true to form. They ship just fine.
Light colored double cultivars include Sparkling Diamond (pure white), Golden Lotus (creamy white), Sun Flare (pale yellow with maroon edges), First Dance (yellow with maroon edges) and Rose Quartz (white with maroon edges). White doubles with magenta veining and spotting include Peppermint Ice (magenta veining) and Confetti Cake (magenta spotting in the center).
Cotton Candy is pale pink. Rosy Glow is darker pink. Berry Swirl is magenta. Red Sapphire is red to dark magenta. One can almost pick a particular shade, like picking paint colors.
Double hellebores with much darker blooms include Dark and Handsome, which is very dark rich maroon, Onyx Odyssey, which is even darker, and Midnight Ruffles, which is almost black.
There are also some more unusual double cultivars. Jade Tiger has light green sepals with maroon edges. Harlequin Gem is dark rose splashed with yellow. Amber Gem is yellow with pink edges and a green center.
There are many more new double cultivars. What has happened is that breeders have developed strains of hellebores whose seedlings are reliably double and are then breeding them generation after generation to isolate those with really spectacular flowers. These are then named individually and propagated by tissue culture. This is why you may sometimes find the cultivars mentioned above including the name of the strain – for example, Winter Jewels Sparkling Diamond. This is exactly the same plant as just plain Sparkling Diamond.
I will end with a summary of caring for hellebores. Pick a spot where you are pretty certain you want the plant to remain for years. If you are into fertilizing, do it in July and August to boost the fall flush of leaves. Once established, hellebores tolerate full sun in our climate so long is it isn’t too dry. The leaves tend to be evergreen through the winter, but can look fairly ratty by spring.
My cycle of care is: 1) remove last year’s leaves early in the spring before the new bloom stalks emerge — this makes the blooms look great; 2) in May or June as the bloom stalks begin to look really spent, cut them off. That’s it. Two trimmings each season. Otherwise just enjoy them because the deer and other herbivores don’t. Hellebores are great plants to put in the earth in your garden. Double hellebores are really special!
