Penny's Pink Hellebore

A wonderful newer variety, Penny’s Pink™ Hellebore will change your views if you are still back in the old days when these plants, also called Lenten roses, were rather dingy winter blooms at the bottom of your grandma’s garden. This one is truly beautiful, flowering from as early as January, depending on your zone, and blooming for 2 months or more. The flowers are 2 inches across, and held well above the leaves, facing outwards, not drooping down. Starting with dark-purple buds, the flowers open pale pink, then slowly darken to more purplish tones, before eventually turning to dusky lime greens. The foliage is just as showy, with the large, divided leaves being leathery and glossy, decorated with beautiful patterns of silver along the veins, sometimes purple, depending on the stage of growth. Tough and beautiful, this plant will live for many, many years, forming a broad clump of groundcover leaves 2 or even 3 feet across, with the flowering stems rising to 2 feet, well above the foliage. Perfect for shade gardens, and ideal groundcover beneath older shrubs, you can also grow it in a pot for years, which allows you to bring it indoors to enjoy the flowers early, and unblemished by winter storms.

• Purple buds open to light pink flowers that gradually darken to purples
• the thick, glossy leaves have beautiful silver marbling patterns
• Flowering begins between January and April, then lasts for 3 months
• Tough leaves make a great groundcover in shady places
• Can be grown in a pot, to flower indoors

Partial shade is perfect for Penny’s Pink™ Hellebore, which enjoys a touch of morning sun, and revels in shade beneath deciduous shrubs or trees. Perfect addition to any shade garden, providing evergreen foliage and winter flowers. It will grow in any well-drained soil, from heavy clay to poor soils, urban soils and alkaline ones too. Enrich the soil with compost, and use it as an annual mulch as well. Deer and rabbit-proof, and normally completely free of pest or disease problems. Don’t trim in fall – wait until the flowers are about to bloom and then trim off any dead foliage. New growth comes during the later part of the flowering period.