Hellebores

Hellebores are distinctly beautiful flowering plants. They provide gardens with showy flowers during the winter and early spring, which has led to the common name Christmas Rose, Winter Roses, or Lenten Rose. They are not roses at all, but members of the plant family Ranunculaceae, the Buttercup family.

Hellebores are a genus of herbaceous or evergreen perennial plants native to Eurasia, from England across Europe and the Mediterranean region to Turkey and northern Syria and as far east as Tibet. 15 species are distributed around this geographic region.

They grow best in lightly shaded areas but can also tolerate more sunny conditions. They grow in a wide variety of soil conditions but prefer well-drained, slightly alkaline soil.

The Winter Jewels®

In 2023, we purchased the Winter Jewels® brand of Hellebores from Ernie and Marietta O’Byrne at Northwest Garden Nursery near Eugene, Oregon. The Winter Jewels® are the culmination of over 30 years of selective breeding. The result is a stunning collection of 23 hybrids that are considered by many to be the best Hellebore hybridus varieties available today in commercial horticulture. With Ernie and Marietta’s continued guidance, we will continue to select and strengthen the unique traits of each hybrid, and we hope to introduce new varieties into this amazing hellebore family.