Helleborus hybridus ViV Halina

Helleborus x hybridus ViV Halina is a variety with superb dark flowering in autumn and early winter. This Lenten Rose produces single flowers, with well-opened dark purple petals, forming an exquisite contrast with the yellow stamens in the centre. It is a robust and hardy perennial, easy to grow in all regions, preferring humus-rich soils. It especially needs moisture and protection from intense sunlight and can thrive perfectly in marked shade. Its evergreen foliage forms a compact clump, beautiful in the garden, and it can easily be grown in pots.

The ViV Hellebores are varieties obtained through in-vitro multiplication. Unlike varieties obtained through seed propagation, in-vitro produced hellebores guarantee flowering that is rigorously identical to the variety they originate from. They have the same genetic characteristics as the mother plant, are more vigorous, and develop in a uniform manner.

Hellebore (or Christmas Rose) ViV Halina belongs to the family of Ranunculaceae, which includes around sixty genera and approximately 2500 species. The species Helleborus orientalis is native to Greece, Turkey, and the central and eastern Caucasus. It is a perennial plant that hybridizes very easily with other species, resulting in hybrids with very varied colours and forms. These hybrids are rarely given variety names; they are distinguished by their shape and colour. Oriental Hellebore is a hardy plant that can tolerate temperatures down to -15 °C, naturally growing in forests, thickets, and clearings up to 2,000 m altitude.

This variety forms a clump that reaches a height of 35 to 45 cm (14 to 18in) and a width of about forty. Its vegetation consists of palmate, slightly dentate, dark green and shiny evergreen basal leaves which actually live for only 8 months and are regularly replaced by new leaves.
Halina starts flowering in November and continues for several weeks, until December with single flowers of 5 well-opened petals, in a superb dark purple colour, highlighted by the golden yellow centre from which the stamens emerge. This flowering blends perfectly with the dark foliage, creating a very refined colour combination. These flowers rise well above the foliage, resembling a butterfly ballet with their corollas in a vertical plane, capturing the slightest breath of wind to flutter. This arrangement can be even more pronounced with the head inclined downwards, allowing water to slide off like an umbrella, preventing it from accumulating in the centre and causing rotting. The Hellebore does not like to be moved once established, and young plants sometimes take time to flower, so make sure to choose their location carefully.

With its very subtle colour combinations, this Hellebore will delight the late season in your garden. Its delayed flowering, compared to the majority of other plants, will allow you to create a partially shaded border that blooms all year round, with other perennials or bushes that share the same likes. You can plant other varieties of Hellebore to extend the flowering season, but also consider decorative foliage. Fabulous Heucheras, well adapted to partial shade, will delight you with their infinite diversity: their sculptural foliage more or less deeply cut or even frilly, takes on almost all colours of the rainbow, green, yellow, pink, red, brown, orange, purple... Also include decorative barks, such as the bright red of the Cornus sericea Cardinal, a Dogwood that takes on superb autumn colours before revealing its highly decorative branches.