Harbinger of Spring - Helleborus

Phonetically, the name may sounds like a "hell-of-a-bore-rose" but in reality, this is a very interesting plant and a joy to behold when they are in bloom, especially after many months of winter boredom. Even though the 5 petals strongly resemble the wild roses, and its common name being Lenten Rose or Christmas Rose, Helleborus is not at all a rose. They belonged to the family of Buttercup or Ranunculaceae, usually blooming in-sync with the snowdrops and the crocus.

This is another one of those easy care, very well behave plant and requires almost no maintenance. When given the right growing conditions, they will be there forever, slowly multiplying over the years. Some are very cold hardy and able to survive my freezing cold alpine winter climate. The leathery leaves remain evergreen during winter months, though sometimes can look a little bit savaged after getting buried under the snow blanket, and all the freeze and thaw, but that does not affect their ability to produce many beautiful blooms that made me smile even on grouchy grey and dull mornings.
There are so many attractive interesting colours being created by hybridizers.
Some are plain looking, others are with darker streaks of green, yummy creamy pink undertones, reddish brown, purplish spots and tinge, ....or simple plain white like this Helleborus Niger or Christmas rose below. In my garden, this white one is the first one to appear ahead of the other cultivars. This white is the most common one here. Sometimes during mild winter, they started blooming around Christmas or around that time. Unlike many flowers with true petals, the hellebore flowers are actually made of 5 sepals which do not fall off . They turn green and stay on the plant, holding on to the seeds pods and remain very decorative for months.

These are very short plants, a little over 12 inches tall, making it a perfect ground cover plants. The blooms faces outward with a tendency to nod as if very shy. I found them most suitable and effective for my upper slope garden as I could see the face of the nodding flowers by looking up from the patio without having to get down on my hands and knees to enjoy their beauty.