Tried and true hellebores: though hybrids are the rage, species hellebores offer diversity

摘要

When I began gardening almost 40 years ago, I loved the challenge of growing plants that were difficult to satisfy. I had read that hellebores were finicky, so I planted my first hellebore in a sheltered spot in neutral soil to help it withstand therigors of a severe winter. My hellebore happened to be just below the window of the music room where I taught, so I was able to watch its flowering stalks lengthen and to observe each flower as it opened. My first plant bloomed with purewhite flowers, as I had hoped it would. I had also read that hellebores did not like to be disturbed. So when my husband and I moved in 1977, I dared not take that plant. Instead, I planted a collection of hellebores brought to me by a gardening friend. They settled inquickly and bloomed within a year or two. In time, my fears of tragedy vanished as I realized that much of what I had read about hellebores was nonsense. These are tough, adaptable plants, and my success in growing the few hellebores I had just stimulated my curiosity to try to grow other species.