Helleborus x hybridus

Common name: Lenten Rose

Description: These classic hybrid hellebores offer an extensive range of flower colours and forms, from pure white through cream, pink, purple, and deep burgundy to almost black. Many varieties feature attractive speckled patterns, double flowers, or picotee edges. The nodding, cup-shaped blooms appear from late winter through to late spring, providing months of colour when few other plants are flowering. The evergreen, deeply divided foliage forms excellent ground cover and the plants are extremely long-lived, often improving with age and self-seeding to create natural drifts.

Other benefits: vast colour range, extremely long-lived, self-seeding, evergreen ground cover, deer resistant, low maintenance

Wildlife attraction: vital early nectar source for bees, pollinators, beneficial insects emerging from winter dormancy

Height & spread (approx.) at 10 years: 40cm x 60cm

Position: partial to full shade; shelter from harsh winds

Soil pH: neutral to alkaline soil preferred; thrives on chalk

Moisture: consistent moisture required; mulch annually; needs rich, well-drained, alkaline soil

Winter hardiness: fully hardy to -20C