Playing with Fire and Ice
Winter blooms that chase away the gloom: Hellebores
Have you met the Queen of our coastal winter? She’s silently seductive, waiting in the shadows for the gray cold days to arrive so she can send out her stems, surprising and delighting those fortunate enough to see her. She comes in different forms. Some of her faces are tricky to see, with heads dangling downwards almost as if to hide her beauty secret (which is simply stunning). Some of her faces are bright and cheery, facing upwards to greet you with delight and the whisper that spring is on the way.
In my opinion, hellebores are an under utilized bloom. Ranging in colors from bright icy white to shades of burgundy and pink, to greens, and even sunset apricots and yellows. Blooms can be single petaled, or double petaled, with doubles being extremely dramatic and unique.
They have a secret to hide as a cut flower, producing a vase life of weeks IF harvested at the correct stage. Where this can go wrong is forgetting to check if the stamens are still on the bloom. If they are, then it’s too soon to harvest, and the bloom will wilt quickly once in the vase. If the stamens are gone, that means the bloom has been fertilized and is ready for harvest.
Which of these seem ready for harvest?
Additionally, checking the texture of the sepals (what most think is the petal of this flower), and assuring it has a firm and almost papery feel. In this stage, the stems will last for days upon end in water, and even a couple days outside water, making them excellent candidates for personal flowers such boutonnieres, corsages, and flower crowns! The beauties also make stunning additions to centerpieces, and bouquets. Depending on the stem length, they can be used as linear flowers, drawing the eye to the shapes within the design. Or, they can be used as a focal face flower, bringing the eye to certain focus areas within the arrangement. It should be noted, that some hellebore varieties don’t face upwards, and will be a challenge to work with as face flowers. Since they last out of water, they can be cut and wired, but I feel that this is rarely worth the effort for bouquets, and arrangements. I prefer to grow the upward facing varietals that give me more flexibility in the design.
Hellebores are unique in that you can take some of the mature stems, leaving the lower immature buds on the plant to go through its maturation process, and then harvesting that stem down to the crown of the plant. Young plants may not produce many stems, stems that are rather short, and stems with only one to two blooms. It can take several years to plants to grow to their maximum potential, so they are an excellent plant to buy young while getting a garden started.
Hellebores do not need to be divided, but if desired, they can be lifted and divided, and transplanted in early autumn, or after the flower stems are spent in the late spring. This is an excellent way to bring more of these beauties in your garden, just knowing that it will take a while for your divisions to grow into their full potential.
If you are taking divisions, I’ve read that the rhizome should have at least three eyes on it, which is probably why there is a lot of advice to divide while the plant is in bloom. While I typically divide after I’ve harvested all the stems, this may be more difficult if you are not familiar to finding natural division points in a plant. Whether you divide with stems, or without, it’s best to avoid transplanting in the heat, or drought of summer, as this can cause the plant to reduce flowering the following winter.