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March 5, 2007 : Helleborus ×hybridus
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Keywords: Ranunculaceae | Helleborus ×hybridus | 009966-0228-1974
Well, it turns out I was a bit premature in declaring that spring had arrived – this photograph is from last Thursday morning, when a fresh blanket of snow covered the garden. Fortunately, it didn't dip much below freezing, so little damage was done to the plants. The cold weather continues to push back the date for the first magnolia blossoms, though. Last year, the first flowers emerged in late February. I suspect it will be at least three more weeks before that noteworthy event occurs.
As for the rest of this entry, please see the accompanying comments regarding an incorrect identification.
Viridis means green, hence the common name of green hellebore for this species. It is one of many hellebore species and cultivars presently in bloom at the garden. You would have to visit the Winter Garden to see most of them, though today's plant is found elsewhere – it grows in the European section of the Alpine Garden, where its label further notes that it is native to western and central Europe. A map of the native distribution of the species can be found on Joseph Woodard's Hellebores.org web site as part of the factsheet for Helleborus viridis (there's also a good photograph of the plant's fruit, termed a follicle). It is also found in the wild elsewhere as an introduced plant, including eastern North America.
As noted by the Plants for a Future Database, All parts of this plant are poisonous, like so many other members of the Ranunculaceae (noted in the recent entry on Eranthis, as well).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at March 5, 2007 12:03 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Beverley at March 5, 2007 8:15 AM
Is this a selected cultivar or even a hybrid? It doesn't look like typical H. viridis to me, with its long slender stems and yellow flowers.
Posted by: Michael F at March 5, 2007 10:29 AM
I'm working from the label, but it's quite possible that there's been a misidentification or label mixup somewhere along the way.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at March 5, 2007 10:33 AM
Certainly, a yellow-flowered selection of Helleborus x hybridus. The original accession of H. viridis to which the label belongs was grown from seed in 1974 and is undoubtedly long gone. Not coincidentally, the Royal Horticulture Society's plant of the month (for February) is Helleborus. On its web site, it says:
"The true wild hellebore species are rarely grown in gardens as hellebores hybridise very easily and the hybrids are much better garden plants with improved form, flowering and flower colour. Most of the hellebores grown in gardens are hybrids involving Helleborus orientalis, crossed with H. cyclophyllus and H. ordorus to give yellow flowers, H. multifidus subsp. bocconei to give green flowers and with H. torquatus to produce deep purple colours."
All of these taxa have, at one time or other, been cultivated in the gardens here. Thanks to Michael F. for communicating the misidentification and my apologies to Daniel for not catching this label problem in the garden.
Posted by: Douglas Justice at March 5, 2007 11:33 AM
Thanks! Thought it wasn't right :-)
The last para re poisonous can be 'de-struck-out', as it applies to the whole genus.
Posted by: Michael F at March 5, 2007 1:15 PM
Yes, definitely not the rather demure H. viridis but a hybrid. It's possible that there may have been a plant of H. viridis behind the label at one time but, as has been mentioned, hybridisation with other species and hybrids is likely. If the hybrid seed then falls into the clump, as it usually does, and germinates the less vigorous H. viridis may be overwhelmed by the resulting hybrid.
Posted by: Graham Rice at March 6, 2007 9:35 AM
For more about Hellebores:
Posted by: Barry Glick at March 7, 2007 4:28 AM
Thanks Barry, I don't usually allow links to commercial sites, but you've put together something exceptional there with all of the information you've packed in.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at March 7, 2007 10:46 AM
Turns out I was wrong about the first magnolia flowers, too. Only took one more week (but then again, we had some very warm days and nights for the season).
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at March 11, 2007 1:28 AM
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Helleborus viridus - Z6 - RHS Index of Garden Plants, Griffiths
Helleborus viridus - Z6-8 - A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, Brickell, Cole, Zuk