Dark, sultry beauties

The gardening year turns once the shortest day is out of the way, and hellebores are one of the biggest treats to come. However, many gardeners automatically think of the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) with its pure-white flowers and dark-green foliage. Lovely though these are in theory, Christmas roses are not wonderful garden performers. All too often the flowers appear against the soil, almost stemless, and they not only get mud-splattered, they make little impact on the eye.

Seek out hybrid hellebores instead. This rogue mixture of at least nine species is more vigorous. The flowers are more spectacular and they come in a range of colours and shapes. There are pure whites, pale pinks, lime-yellows, apricots, plums and slaty blacks. Shape varies from pendant round bell, to ragged star, to neat doubles and semi-double. And the only way to shop for hellebores is to look at them when they are in flower and pick your favourite. They may be labelled Oriental hellebores (Helleborus x orientalis) or by their correct name Helleborus x hybridus.

Experience has taught me that single, pure-white hybrid hellebores usually flower early. They also make a strong impact on the eye and can be used in among ferns or in dark corners. Single specimens stand out well on their own. However, although plum-black hellebores look wonderful close up and often have pale-golden stamens and nectaries, in the garden setting they often merge in against the dark soil and are lost to the eye. If you do use these sultry beauties, place them carefully.

Dark hellebores shine out against pale birch trunks and silvered pulmonarias like Majesté' or Diana Clare'. Or grow tham against a background of silver rubus stems (R. thibetanus). They are best planted in groups of three, five or seven and they are often not vigorous, tough plants and they can be severely affected by frost. Apricot and yellow hellebores can also be miffy' but there are good forms available.

The most prevalent hellebore colour is plum-pink and I have seen several planted at the base of a pink-berried Sorbus hupehensis Pink Pagoda'. They looked a picture in winter sunlight but plum hellebores also associate well with early-flowering viburnums like the pink Dawn' or the pure-white V. farreri Candidissimum. Perhaps the best colour of all is wine-red, a rarely-found hue that glows in every light. I have a superb plant that lights up winter for me every year.

I also grow some double-flowered forms. But please remember that the single forms have more nectar and pollen. They will sustain early-flying bumble and solitary bees. Doubles are all-petal and no sustenance, but they last a long time because the flowers are formed by tough bracts and not petals. A good hellebore may start flowering in January and still look in flower in late April.

If you do have these hybrid hellebores , or are buying some, this is the time to cut away every leaf. It sounds drastic. But the flower buds are already formed and they will push up and make more of a show without any leaf. The principal reason for culling every leaf is to prevent black spot disease from affecting the foliage. This fungal disease (Coniothyrium hellebori) produces dark patches on the foliage. Spores are washed downwards from affected leaves, ont o the soil and then splashed upwards again by bouncing raindrops. Cutting off every leaf now hopefully breaks the cycle. Feed with blood, fish and bone after flowering and again in September.