Helleborus Orientalis

The hellebore has had something of a renaissance in recent years and is a cut flower stem especially valued so early in the year. At a time when variety amongst English stems is at a premium, their beautiful colouring across a broad palette, subtlety of markings and form and wonderful lyrical lines add depth and distinction to floral work that is hard to replicate.

We grow them, as we grow many of our special stars, in a variety of locations to both extend and bring forward their season. Where we can we place them near winter flowering shrubs which bring the pollinators early to them so benefitting the bees and our stems.

Many are nervous of the hellebore as they can be fickle in how they condition - that is to say are prepared for life in the vase. We use a variety of techniques to manage this and find them, with care, extraordinarily reliable. A few years ago we were pleased to explore and discuss with the renown floral designer Philippa Craddock, our techniques for conditioning hellebores and to have inspired her to create her series Grower’s Notes and to kick off that series.

In essence, the hardest time to condition hellebores is before they have ‘set seed’, that is to say, been fertilised early in the season by visiting bees, when perversely their flowers are most valuable to florists. At this time their stems need to be scored right up to their necks with a sharp knife and given a cool drink in fresh water to the tip of the scoring. This allows a much greater surface area to absorb precious water, the cut then callouses over sealing in the water and we find, done well, this allows the flowers to hold. 

Once fertilised, visible from swollen ovaries at the heart of the flower, all we do is sear the cut end of the stem in boiling water for about 10 seconds and then give the stem a long cool drink. 

With these techniques we enjoy the extraordinary beauty that is the hellebore and are able to use them with confidence in vase, arrangement and bouquet.