Helleborus hybridus ViV Cinzia

Helleborus x hybridus Viv Cinzia is a variety with light flowers, ideal for brightening up dark winter days. Flowering for several weeks from January, this Lenten Rose has white "Anemone-like" flowers with 5 well-spaced petals, serving as a backdrop for a central collar surrounding a bouquet of stamens. Forming a small evergreen clump with dark green foliage, it is a robust and hardy perennial, easy to grow in all regions, even in slightly clayey soil, although it prefers humus-rich soil. Grow it in partial shade, at the base of trees, alongside other shade-loving perennials, or even in a pot.

The ViV Hellebores are varieties produced through in-vitro multiplication. Unlike seed multiplication, in-vitro hellebores guarantee flowers that are rigorously identical to the variety they come from. They have the same genetic characteristics as the mother plant, are more vigorous, and develop uniformly.

Hellebore Cinzia belongs to the Ranunculaceae family, which includes about sixty genera and around 2500 species, most of which are herbaceous. Many ornamental plants have remarkable flowering. The species Helleborus orientalis is native to Greece, Turkey, and the central and eastern Caucasus. It is a perennial plant that hybridizes very easily with other species, resulting in many hybrids with varied colours and forms. These hybrids are rarely given variety names and are distinguished by their shape and colour. The Oriental Hellebore is a hardy plant that can tolerate temperatures down to -15°C, naturally growing in forests, thickets, and clearings up to 2,000 meters (2,187 yards) in altitude.

This variety is also known as Anemone-flowered Hellebore, a group that has some similarities in terms of flowering with another Ranunculaceae. Cinzia forms a clump that is only 35 to 45 cm (14 to 18in) tall, with a width of about thirty. Its vegetation consists of palmate, slightly toothed, dark green, and shiny, evergreen basal leaves which actually only live for 8 months and are regularly replaced by new leaves.
Cinzia blooms in the heart of winter, mainly from January to February, bringing light to the garden under skies often dark at this time. Its flowers are white, turning green in the centre, and consist of 5 well-opened petals surrounding a yellow stamen centre, well-matched with the tender green base of the petals. These simple white flowers stand out sharply against the dark mass of the evergreen foliage, showcasing them. They tend to incline downwards to let water slide off like an umbrella, thus protecting the delicate centre from excessive water. Hellebores do not like to be moved once established, and young plants sometimes take time to flower, so choose their location carefully.

This Hellebore will bring light to the heart of winter with its flowers. To create a decorative winter scene, plant it in groups alongside other Hellebores with staggered flowering times, to add volume to your flower bed, add bushes like Sarcococca. These graceful shrubs with slender leaves also bloom in the heart of winter, with a delightful fragrance. To maintain a soft tone, plant Daphne laureola Philippi, a small bush with curious yellow-green flowers that emit a sweet honey fragrance from February to April. Also consider decorative barks to brighten up the winter, especially on rainy days. Prunus serrula Branklyn, or Tibetan Cherry, features a sumptuous copper-red bark adorned with white lenticels, at the base of which the flowers of our small Hellebore will have a great effect.