Helleborus HGC® Ice N' Roses® Dark Picotee Hellebore

p>Helleborus HGC® Ice N' Roses® Dark Picotee is an evergreen perennial offering year-round interest. Uniform and freely flowering for weeks in winter, beginning in December, the plant sets creamy butter-colored flowers with a wine picotee, even when young. Borne on long, sturdy stems above glossy, dark green leaves, the upward facing to slightly nodding flowers last a long time, sustain early pollinators, and make cute kitchen table bouquets or lovely additions to cut floral arrangements.

A Helleborus x glandorfensis variety, commonly called Lenten rose or hellebore, Ice N' Roses Dark Picotee is a moderately vigorous herbaceous plant with an upright, mounding habit of leathery palmate leaves. Shown to best effect when massed or grouped in beds, borders, and patio pots or under a high-branched deciduous tree or large shrub, protected from strong winter winds. The plant makes a lovely ground cover and will naturalize, slowly spreading via rhizomatous roots. It also self-seeds in ideal growing conditions but will not become invasive. Carex, thuja, heuchera, muscari, and narcissus are excellent companion plants.

Cold hardy, easy to grow, and low maintenance, hellebore grows best in dappled to full shade locations with humus rich, well-draining soil, having an alkaline pH. However, it grows well in most soils, including chalk, clay, and loam, and in most growing conditions. Fertilize in early spring. Once established, the plant is drought tolerant, but it will not tolerate extremely wet, waterlogged soils and only needs water in the hottest weather. The plant goes dormant in summer and stops growing but still maintains its lush green foliage. Ice N' Roses Dark Picotee is deer and rabbit resistant.