Helleborus hybridus Anemone Apricot

Oriental Hellebore Anemone Apricot, with its charming delicate yellow-orange flowers, is a true delight in the heart of winter. We also love their beautifully adorned centre with matching ruffles. This additional collar composed of small tubular petals has earned the hybrids in this category the name of anemone-flowered hellebores. This robust and very hardy perennial can be grown in borders and under shrub beds or mixed borders, and in pots. Easy to grow, even in heavy soil, it will thrive in shade or non-burning sun.

Originally from Greece, Turkey, and the central and eastern Caucasus, the Oriental Hellebore, sometimes called Lenten Rose, is a perennial plant of the buttercup family that readily hybridizes with other species to give hybrids with very varied colours and shapes, so much so that no variety names are given to these hybrids anymore. They are distinguished by shape and colour characteristics.

The Oriental Hellebore is a hardy plant that tolerates temperatures down to -15°C, naturally growing in forests, thickets, and clearings up to 2,000 m (7ft) altitude. The Apricot Anemone form has a compact and leafy clump of 40 cm (16in) in all directions with palmate, slightly toothed, dark green and shiny, evergreen basal leaves, 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16in) long, composed of 7 to 9 leaflets. They only live for 8 months and are regularly replaced by new leaves.

Between February and April, a bouquet of simple, cup-shaped and inclined flowers, 4 to 5 cm (2in) in diameter, forms with a collar of petals in the centre, characteristic of this group of hybrids. They are inclined downwards, allowing water to slide off like an umbrella to protect the heart of the flower from rotting. The Hellebore is a bushy plant. It does not like to be moved once established, with young shoots taking a little time to flower. The seeds are sown by ants.

Use hellebores as elements of an ancient tapestry, mixing them with brightly coloured woodland plants. They are highlighted when planted near Pieris, small-sized rhododendrons, under conifers (especially on wind-exposed sites), and surrounded by primroses, wood anemones, corydalis, dicentras, cardamines, or spring-flowering bulbs and snowdrops. You can also accompany them with ferns and shade irises to create a beautiful contrast a little later in the season. They can be planted in groups near the entrance of the house, in a shaded situation, to enjoy their early flowering up close. They are suitable as cut flowers and in borders, edges, or containers. Over time, Hellebore flowers do not wilt like the majority of other flowers but dry up.

Each seed-sown Hellebore has a unique flower colour: thus slight variations in colours may exist between two plants, which is normal and inevitable. However, if the difference is too significant and alters the desired effect, we will refund or replace the affected plant.