Helleborus 'Cotton Candy' Photo: Terra Nova Nursery

I’m in love. The handsome specimen that’s caught my eye is perfect in every way. Long-lasting flowers that bloom in a rainbow of colours, evergreen foliage that looks good all year-round (it gets a bit tattered after our long winters, but what doesn’t?) and it’s perfectly happy growing in shade. Oh, you thought I was describing the love of my life?

Well, the current love of my garden is Helleborus x hybridus, commonly known as the Lenten rose, and it was chosen as the Perennial Plant of the Year in 2005, so obviously I’m not the only one smitten by its charms. The thousands of members of the Perennial Plant Association cast their ballots in favour of this gem which must meet the requirements of all perennial plants of the year, including: 1) suitable for a wide range of climates, 2) low maintenance requirements 3) easily propagated 4) comes true from seed or vegetative propagation, and 4) exhibits interest throughout the seasons.

If you were lucky enough to have visited this year’s Canada Blooms flower show, you would have seen Lenten roses growing in just about every feature garden. They are one of the first of the early spring perennials to bloom, and their flowers look good for up to two months! Well, I call them flowers, but to the horticultural cognoscenti, they’re sepals, but who’s splitting petals? Whatever they are, they’re beautiful – and they bloom in a wide range of colours from the purest of whites and the creamiest of creams to pale pinks, deep burgundies (nearly black ones too) and even a stunning green. Their nodding bell-shaped sepals form single, semi-double and fully doubles, and some are edged in a deeper colour known as picotee.

Because of the attractive, leathery foliage, Lenten roses look good right into the summer and fall months too. Over the winter, the leaves may get tatty, so cut these off to encourage new growth. And if deer are a problem in your garden (thankfully they haven’t become urban grazers – yet!), the leaves contain an alkaloid that keep marauding deer from munching them.

There’s more good news about these wonderful plants – they’re easy to grow. Lenten roses are happy in shade, part-shade or even in dappled sun as long as the soil remains cool and moist. They demand well-drained, humus-rich soil and once established, will tough it out during temporary periods of drought. Helleborus x hybridus is perfectly happy growing alongside other shade-loving plants, including ferns, flowering shrubs such as rhododendrons and hydrangeas and perennials like sweet woodruff, masterwort, bugbane and barrenwort.

Some new varieties of Helleborus x hybridus to look for in the nurseries this season include the Lady Series, a group of hybrids with cup-shaped, slightly upward-facing flowers that bloom in shades of pink, deep red, pink-rose and a deep, dark purple. The Royal Heritage strain of Lenten roses is also worth a second glance. These long-lived perennials produce large flowers and great foliage. Colours range from near black, purple and red to pink, green, yellow and white.

With such a rainbow of colours, handsome foliage and an easy going attitude, what’s not to love about Helleborus x hybridus?

Helleborus Vancouver Medallion

What better way to welcome athletes and visitors to the Winter Olympics than with drifts of  this gorgeous Vancouver Medallion hellebore?  Thanks to the advance planning of the Garden Club of Vancouver and Heritage Perennials, 750 of these specially named hellebores (the cultivar name is ‘Candy Love’ — appropriate for upcoming Valentine’s Day, too) have been planted in Stanley Park and arranged in sweeping curves resembling the ski runs on the mountains where Olympic contenders will vie for gold medals. Hmm, I could go for a little hellebore gold in my un-Olympic-sized garden, too!

Allium 'Purple Sensation'

Think spring now! To ignore the coming season is to court horticultural disaster – a naked garden devoid of tulips, crocuses and daffodils when across the street your neighbours flaunt their vernal finery. Fall is the time to plant these colourful spring flower bulbs.For gardeners, the bins of bulbs that line the aisles of garden centres at this time of the year can be as appealing as candy to a child. We are helpless to control our impulses to select the brightest colours and the prettiest flowers. What we rarely think about, though, is how to select a collection of bulbs that will bloom from early to mid- and late spring. Here’s how to plan a succession of colourful bulbs to dress up the garden from early spring through summer.

Crocus

Among the first flower bulbs to bloom in the early spring are snowdrops, crocuses and grape hyacinths. These are the small gems that signal the end of winter and welcome the beginning of spring. Because of their size, planting only one or two won’t make much of a splash in the garden – these diminutive bulbs have impact when planted in large drifts. Imagine woodland slopes covered with the nodding petals of hundreds of snowdrops or fields of yellow and purple crocuses and you’ve got the picture.

Tulipa tarda

We rarely consider tulips as early bloomers, but many of them flower at the same time as crocuses. Among the earliest are the Greigii, Kaufmanniana and Fosteriana types. Unlike more traditional tulips, many of these produce multiple flowers from a single stem and are generally shorter and more compact which makes them good choices for rock gardens or for edging pathways and borders. In addition to brightly coloured flowers, Greigii tulips have attractive, purple striped or mottled leaves. The Kaufmanniana tulips are sometimes called the water lily tulip because the petals open outward like a water lily. This species tulip comes in a rainbow of colours, with some bi-coloured flowers too. Taller than most early tulips are the Fosteriana types which grow between 12 and 18 inches. Among these are the Purissima and Emperor hybrids with their classically elegant flowers.

Jetfire

Daffodils mark the change from early to mid-season in the flower bulb garden. Like most bulbs, they look their best when planted in groups rather than lined up in rows. Unlike many hybrid tulips, daffodils “perennialize”, returning each year and multiplying into increasingly larger clumps. There are so many varieties to choose from that you could grow an entire garden of daffodils alone.

But, why would you when there are such wonderful Darwin and Triumph tulips that bloom at the same time? Darwins stand tall in the garden, growing to about 30 inches. They flaunt large, brightly coloured flowers in primary shades of red, orange and yellow as well as pink. And, if you can’t find a Triumph tulip that you like then you’re not a tulip lover. These popular hybrids come in one of the widest ranges of colours imaginable. Shorter than Darwins, Triumphs bear cup-shaped flowers that bloom on sturdy stems that grow to about 12 or 16 inches tall.

Tulipa 'Queen of the Night'

The late season garden is one of the easiest to fill with flower bulbs. Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides) look like giant grape hyacinths. I’ve recently discovered these gems and plan to add more to my garden this year. Along with these, there is a bevy of late tulips – doubles, fringed, lily-flowering, and Rembrandt types are irresistible. But remember, the later they bloom the longer their browning leaves will linger in the garden. So plan for plenty of leafy perennials to grow up and camouflage the dying foliage.

Allium 'Purple Sensation'

Alliums or ornamental onions are the closing glory of the spring flower bulb garden. Tall and towering or short and plump, these bulbs deserve a place in even the smallest of gardens. From the large spheres of purple or white classics such as Globemaster, Purple Sensation or Mount Everest to the nodding bells of Cowanii and Bulgaricum (also sold as Nectarscodium siculum – what are they thinking?), alliums create the perfect transition from the splashes of bulbs that colour the spring garden to the elegant lilies that grace the summer garden.