As usual I am linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden, with a late post for ‘In A Vase On Monday’. I noticed early last week that my three helleborus niger plants were full of buds and I have kept my fingers crossed that they would flower in time for today’s challenge.
Flower they did, so I was able to pick plenty of blooms to make this candle arrangement with lots of flowers still left to lighten the garden. The arrangement is made in a stone urn filled with floral foam and I have added a fake moss ring to give height. The foliage is from my favourite shrub Viburnum tinus gwenlian.
I originally bought five small helleborus niger plants from the market three years ago, in the first winter we spent in this house. They were planted in a shady border which I expected them to thrive in. The border turned out to be extremely dry and at the end of their first summer I found two had died and the remaining three looked very sickly. I replanted them in a different spot which gets more sun and rain and they have thrived.
This is the second year when I have had flowers before Christmas and hopefully they will go on producing fresh white blooms until the helleborus orientalis take over in February.
Despite becoming increasingly busy in the run up to next weeks big event, I am hoping to produce a vase next week. After that I will have to take a couple of weeks off as we will be away in the snowy Alps.
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Gosh, it’s hard to get an idea of scale at first, Julie, with it being a ‘stone urn’ as it makes the flowers look huge! it is such a simple arrangement, but so perfect and the viburnum really sets it off. I have some ‘old’ flowers on a hellebore that mistakenly flowered in summer which I meant to use today, but forgot (but it didn’t need it anyway), and although my H niger has lots of buds I fear the stems will not have sufficient length to make viable pickings.Yours look so perfect and pristine…sigh… Thanks so much for joining in and for your support, Julie 🙂
Thank you Cathy – I am really enjoying joining in with you. I agree that it is hard to find such perfect niger flowers – they always seem to be dirty because they sit so low to the ground. I was very lucky that these had just opened as I came to make the arrangement. I must remember to call this a ‘small stone urn’ in future ( as I am sure it will be making a few future appearances)!
Wow what a stunning display! Thanks for sharing your favourite viburnum…it makes a perfect companion to the hellebores. Very inspiring indeed 🙂
Thank you Sarah – at the moment I have three of these viburnums in pots by the house. They are quite young but are flowering their socks off. I will probably keep them in pots for a couple of years as they add a nice touch of greenery to my brick walls and then plant them out in the garden when they are more mature.
Oh, lucky you to have Hellebores before Christmas! These are just gorgeous Julie.
Thank you Libby – we are very lucky to have had such a mild spell – normally helleborus niger would flower in January, which is very frustrating as it is known as the Christmas rose.
Gorgeous, Julie, So precious at this time. I can’t get the link to ‘ Rambling In The Garden ‘ to open and it tells me it has moved!
Pam
Thank you Pam _ I am glad you liked this. Thank you so much for telling me about the link – wordpress does not seem to want to let me change it, but if you go to http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com you will find Cathy’s vase. I will make sure this works next week before I hit publish!
How elegant and stylish – I would love to have this in my house! Been looking for hellebores but couldn’t find any up to now.
Thank you Annette. If you can’t find mature hellebores you might be able to buy small plants on line. I bought ten small plugs very cheaply in January. I kept them well watered in pots in the cold frame and although I doubt they will flower this year they are sizeable plants now and I will plant them out in the garden later this winter.
Wow, I’m not sure my Christmas Rose ever has blooms as pristine as that! Very stylish arrangement.
Thank you Janet – I was very lucky to find these! I have considered putting straw around these hellebores to protect the flowers in the way you would with strawberries, but haven’t got around to trying this yet.