Helleborus hybridus Anemone Black

Helleborus x hybridus Anemone Black will delight lovers of dark flowers. This hybrid Christmas Rose produces flowers of a slightly metallic slate blue, almost black, featuring a beautiful collar of the same tone in their centre. It blooms in late winter, for 5 to 8 weeks in the shade. It is a robust and very hardy perennial, easy to grow in all regions, even in heavy soil. Combine its dusky flowers with pink, white, apricot, plain or speckled blooms, under bushes, in woodlands, or to adorn the north side of the house. Christmas roses also make beautiful flowering pots that will brighten up the dreary days of winter.

Native to Greece, Turkey, and the central and eastern Caucasus, Oriental Hellebore, sometimes called Lenten Rose, is a perennial plant of the buttercup family that hybridizes very easily with other species to produce many hybrids with very varied colours and forms. No variety names are given to these hybrids; they are distinguished by their shape and colour. Oriental Hellebore is a hardy plant that can withstand temperatures as low as -15°C (5°F), naturally growing in forests, thickets, and clearings up to an altitude of 2,000 m (7ft).

Black Anemone forms a compact and leafy clump of 40 cm (16in) in all directions composed of evergreen, palmate, slightly toothed, dark green and shiny basal leaves, 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16in) long, composed of 7 to 9 leaflets. They only live for 8 months and are regularly replaced by new leaves.

Between February and April, a bouquet of single, cup-shaped flowers, 4 to 5 cm (2in) in diameter, forms with a collar of petals in their centre, placed on a corolla of petals, characteristic of this group of hybrids. They are inclined downwards, allowing water to slide off like an umbrella to protect the heart of the flower from rotting.  Hellebore is a bushy plant. It does not like to be moved once established, as the young plants take some time to flower. The seeds are sown by ants.

Use hellebores like elements of an old tapestry, mixing them with brightly coloured woodland plants. They are highlighted when planted near Pieris, moderately sized rhododendrons, under conifers (particularly on wind-exposed sites), and surrounded by primroses, wood anemones, corydalis, dicentras, cardamines, or spring-flowering bulbs and snowdrops. You can also accompany them with ferns and shade-loving irises to create a beautiful contrast a little later in the season. They can be planted in groups near the entrance of the house, in shaded areas, to enjoy their early flowering up close. They are suitable as cut flowers and in borders, edges, or even containers... Over time, Hellebore flowers do not fade like the majority of other flowers, but dry out.

Each seed-sown hellebore has a unique flower colour, so slight variations in colour may exist between two plants, which is normal and unavoidable. However, if the difference is too significant and distorts the desired effect, we will refund or replace the affected plant.