Last week we took a trip out to a specialist nursery called Ashwood Nurseries, it’s in between Kidderminster and Wolverhampton in the Midlands and lucky for us is pretty local!
We had booked onto one of their Hellebore tours and had a wonderful talk from Steve whose knowledge about these beautiful winter gems was just wonderful! Thanks Steve! We added a few new varieties to our collection, green and deep purple ones almost black, a beautiful yellow double and very elegant white which was very exciting!
What a fascinating plant! Originating in the Eastern Alps, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, they are also known as the Christmas rose or Lenten rose, although they flower a little later than Christmas and they are not related to the rose but are actually in the Ranunculus family! (buttercup)
February to April is the best time to see Hellebores in all their glory! On our tour we got to see inside theHellebore growing tunnels which was honesty like stepping into a sweet shop. Hellebores don’t smell but they certainly make up for it in colour! And their colour palette is unlike that of any other plant! I think using them for inspiration for interiors would make for a very tranquil yet jolly room! They come in Pastels but are made rich with deep velvety pinks and blacks sometimes framing the pastels round the edges of the sepals (the correct name for the petals on a hellebore) or veining through them, as in the sweetly named ‘Picotee’ varieties! The photo at the top of this post is a really good overview of the colours available at Ashwood that we saw on our visit and you can see some of those lovely Picotee ones in the mix too!
We were amazed with the careful and dedicated organisation of the breeding programme at Ashwood nurseries. Steve talked about how they have transitioned from dividing and selling by division to growing from seeds. So the tunnels had busy staff on a mission to make new hellebore varieties by looking for closely packed stamens within the centres of the flowers to be sure that the bees hadn’t got to them first! Bee’s LOVE hellebores, as there isn’t so much nectar available to them at this time of year so they make a great source of food! Steve explained you have to be quicker than the bees to select the parent plants! Hellebores at Ashwood Nurseries go through a 3 year cycle from seed pollination before they are ready to sell, as it’s only by this point they can be sure that it’s a good hellebore and that the true flowers are produced.
If you have a hellebore plant or two then you can make yourself a floating hellebore arrangement like in the picture to enjoy for weeks in your home, they last so well! They even work as an arrangement in the garden where they blow across the surface of the water as they are caught on the breeze. It couldn’t be simpler or more beautiful – Cut an inch or two below the flower head and simply float them in your favourite bowl filled with clean water. Experiment and see what bowl works best, ceramic, glass, patterned or plain will all have have different results. I’d love to see what you create! And I’ll share some in next weeks blog post too!
Aren’t Hellebores just such a wonderful way of kicking off the cut flower season?! And how wonderful as a valentines gift would something like the arrangement in the picture be?!? Stay tuned folks we have an idea brewing to share with you in next weeks post!
To me, they do look like rather magical and mysterious plants, not only their colours but the way they emerge from the soil in the coldest darkest days of the year like strange creatures, you can often already see the flower bud as it emerges from the ground as though the flower is coming straight from the dirt. And then, as they develop, their heads are held on almost elasticated looking pedicel (the top part of the stem which holds the flower), and last for weeks and weeks and weeks bending down with each frost and springing back into action as they thaw out as if revitalised and new. Almost how I imagine those brave souls who cold water swim feel after stepping out from their morning ritual. We have found the very best way to appreciate the Hellebore is to put them in pots by our door or you could place them by a window you look out of often, they are a sure way to tell how cold is it out too!
After a bit of research, unsurprisingly it seems there are a great deal of myths, folklore and magical stories related to them, such as river poisoning stories, healing and purging of animals and humans, treatments for nervousness and mental illnesses, the making of ‘black dust’ a deadly sneezing powder made from the roots it’s even been said that powdered hellebore flowers could be thrown up into the air to give the power of invisibility to the person they land on! Anyway I’ll leave you to find out more before I fall down that rabbit hole! If you read this far then thank you! I hope my writing will get better by bringing you new and exciting posts on a weekly basis and I hope to bring you some ideas and ways to enjoy flowers each week. Please do drop me any comments with ideas and suggestions and don’t forget to share your floating hellebore pictures if you give it a go!
I’m going to be announcing my first give away next week, so please check back next Tuesday for that!
With Love, Rebecca