Hellebore is a great water-wise choice for hard-to-plant spot: dry shade
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| Hellebores offer long-lasting blooms in dry shade. (Photo: Debbie Arrington) |
This “rose” blooms where (and when) others won’t. It flowers in dry shade – in late winter.
On March 2, the first day of Lent, my Lenten roses were in full flower. In shades from near black to creamy pale green, those interesting blooms actually arrived way early; they’ve been opening for most of February. But they’re so long lasting, they’ll still be around for Easter.
“Lenten rose” is the nickname for hellebore, a wonderful shade-loving perennial. Despite the nickname, they’re only a distant relative of roses. They’re actually close cousins to ranunculus.
Native to Southeastern Europe, hellebores are well adapted to our Mediterranean climate. Once established, they can get by with only twice-monthly irrigation, which makes them a great pick for water-wise landscapes.
Naturally compact, they love dry filtered shade, such as under trees. Hellebores can tolerate some sun, too; just not full Sacramento summer sun.
Their large, leathery leaves stay close to the ground, usually under 1 foot tall. In winter, they send up flower stalks with large bell-like blooms.
These plants are extremely low maintenance. Unlike roses, Lenten roses need no pruning. Just snip off any unattractive leaves in summer.
Another plus for hellebores: Deer don’t like them. Hellebores also can tolerate colder temperatures, making them ideal for foothill gardens.
New hybrids have expanded the range of hellebore colors and petal patterns, from pure white to darkest purple black. Most varieties fade to shades of pink or purple.
Two hybrid hellebores have been featured by the UC Davis Arboretum as part of its water-wise plant collections: Pink Frost ( Helleborus X ballardiae ‘Coseh 710’ ) and Mahogany Snow ( Helleborus X ballardiae ‘Coseh 930’ ).
Pink Frost has striking cream-colored flowers with pretty pink edges that last for weeks in the garden. Mahogany Snow is similar with creamy petals reversed with dark pink. Those varieties and others can be seen in the arboretum’s Terrace Garden and Ruth Risdon Storer Garden.
Corsican hellebores, which have bright green flowers, are featured in the Arboretum’s White Flower Garden near the gazebo.
See them in bloom now. For more information, visit the arboretum’s website: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu .
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 19
Dress warmly in layers – and get to work:
* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based oil to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback if pruned now. Save those until summer.)
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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