So, since last week we've had beautiful days and mornings with a dusting of snow on the ground. It's typical for this time of year, we get just enough nice days to get you all excited to get outside and then the weather turns cold again. My crocus and tulips are only up about two inches so far, but my hellebores have broken through the leaves placed on top of them for the winter, and they are in full bloom even with some nights getting back down into the teens. 

Hellebores are beautiful, tough evergreen perennials that bring color and interest to the garden during the late winter and early spring when most other plants are still dormant. They grow well for me, and the deer do not eat them as all parts of the hellebore are toxic if ingested, so keep that in mind around pets or small children, but they're otherwise very garden friendly. Even insects seem to stay away from them. They're often called Lenten roses as they flower early in the spring around the time of Lent. They belong to the genus Helleborus in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), with about twenty species native to Europe and parts of Asia. 

Most garden hellebores are hybrids, particularly Helleborus × hybridus, which offer a huge range of flower colors. White, pink, purple, maroon, black, green, yellow tones, and many spotted or picotee patterns are often available. The flowers last up to two months in normal conditions, but mine seem to bloom from March until it gets hot in July. The hand-shaped leaves are dark green, thick and leathery, and stay evergreen, providing year-round structure. The old leaves stayed upright under the leaves all winter long making a dome of leaves over top of them and creating a greenhouse effect for them to thrive over the winter. The new growth and flowers have emerged from the center of the clump and later in the growing season I will prune off some of the old leaves from last year. 

In southern climates, as hellebores can grow as far south as Georgia, they will sometimes bloom around Christmas having adopted the name Christmas rose. Hellebores are very low maintenance once established and excellent for shade gardens. My hellebores get about three to four hours of morning light and then are shaded by my house during the heat of the day. They are great for planting under deciduous trees like oak or maples, but not good under evergreens. Hellebores like neutral to slightly alkaline rich well drained soil. Water liberally while hellebores are getting established, but once established watering probably won't be necessary as hellebores produce deep roots. 

To propagate hellebores, you would normally dig and divide in the late fall, but I have tried this and it is not easy with those deep roots. None of the sections that I divided off the mother root survived the winter. I will try again someday, but for now I'm just adding to my flowerbed with hellebores from the store. There are a lot of colors I don't have yet.