IX 



ON CHRISTMAS AND LENTEN ROSES (HELLEBORES) 



GREAT as is the skill of the modern flower-gardener, and 

 vast as is the number of plants at his service, he has not 

 yet arrived at the point of being able to fill his beds and 

 borders with bloom at mid-winter. He has flowers in 

 abundance in spring, summer, and autumn, but the 

 hard weeks from the end of November to mid-February 

 are practically bare, the few unimportant and compara- 

 tively ineffective plants which give odd flowers in 

 sheltered places during that period hardly counting 

 seriously. 



There is, however, one flower which does count, and 

 that is the Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger). It counts 

 as the best summer flowers count with amplitude of 

 growth, abundance of bloom, and real beauty of flower. 

 It is not one of those little plants that we speak of as 

 merely "pretty" or "interesting," and which we fondle 

 in some corner of the rockery. It is a strong grower, 

 capable of forming a bold break of bloom. When we 

 have learned to give it the best of treatment, and to 

 utilise it in the best way, we shall appreciate it more and 

 more. 



We always think of the Christmas Rose as a white 

 flower, and yet the dictionaries tell us that the original 

 species was pink. Naturally we resent this. W T e have 

 grown used to employing such terms as "snow-white" 



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