Hellebores and how to grow them in small spaces

Helleborus x hybridus has been deeply fashionable for many years now, and it’s easy to see why.

Hanging hellebore

They flower for months and their leaves re evergreen and they have downward-facing flowers in wonderfully sumptuous, bruised shades. These amazing colour permutations are the rust of human hybridisation, (hence the ‘x’ in the name). When I was new to gardening, and having to fit all my plants not containers on my balcony, I bought one and planted it in a hanging basket, so that I could get a good view of those nodding blooms from below. Had I read anything about hellebores before I committed this act of hanging basketry (tales of picture shade and richness-loving), I would never have attempted it, but as with many things in gardening, the plants themselves prove time and time again many of them don’t bother reading the rule books. Indeed this hellebore just kept on flowering year after year and I now regularly put hellebores in hanging baskets and suspend them from the branches of my apple tree.

You will need:

1 Helleborus x hybridus plant (max height and spread should be around 45cm)

1 hanging basket - the larger the better

Compost - I use peat-free multi-purpose, and mix it up with a few trowel-fulls of soil from my garden.

Water-retaining granules

Fertiliser granules

An empty pot

Method

First water ou hellebore thoroughly in its pot so that the roots get saturated. Make sure that the lining of your hanging basket has holes in it (some don’t). If not, then cut some by making a few nicks in the plastic with scissors.

Next, mix the compost with your water-retaining granules and fertiliser (see the packet for quantities). Balance your basket on an empty pt and fill it to 10cm shy of the rim before you water the whole thing. This pre-watering will give the water-retaining granules a chance to expand before you plant anything.

Now remove your plant fro its pot, rubbing the roots gently to let them now its okay to spread out, and plant it firmly in the basket, adding more compost if you need to , but leaving a good couple of centimetres between the top of the compost and the rim of the basket for watering purposes.

Water the whole thing again, and then hang it up!

Float blooms in a bowl

You can pick the blooms and float them in bowls for the perfect winter table.

x Laetitia

Comforts

This lovely thing is soothing my heartstrings right now. I made it in October last year, having bought rather too many hellebores. I wish I had made more - it's one of those all-year-round pots to which you do precisely nothing, and it sits around looking gorgeous in spite of that.

Bruised, sober, ever so slightly funereal...but with bulbs in it, symbolising hope (?)...okay, I'll shut up now - suffice to say, we are one year on from this. Tricky.

Here's how you do it:

So here's the thing -

I love cyclamen and pansies as much as the next person

...and I have buckets of them everywhere...

...but right now I'm in the mood for something that'll go the distance with me...

Here's a lovely pot that will remain lovely all year round. I've been growing hellebores in pots and window-boxes ever since I began gardening and they are completely low-maintenance and trouble-free. I've added some bulbs to this pot for spring zing, but a hellebore and some pretty ivy is enough for me...enjoy.

You need:

1 gorgeous hellebore...they're on sale now and there are a squillion different permutations 3 little ivy plants 5 dwarf daffodil bulbs A pot (mine is 30 cm diameter) Some multi-purpose compost, mixed half and half with John Innes no. 2, because this pot is not a flash-in-the-pan part-time lover...it's a keeper.

Simply fill the pot with compost half full and put a circle of bulbs around the edge. Place your hellebore in the centre and fill in the gaps, squidging your ivy into the sides as you go. Don't worry about the bulbs getting through...they always manage somehow. Water it thoroughly and enjoy x