Helleborus Frostkiss Penny's Pink - Amazing EASY to GROW Perennial With Terrific Evergreen Foliage 👍

Well hello and welcome to Overdiverse Nurseries, where we grow a very wide variety of outdoor garden plants, ones that have been especially selected for their performance here in this region, that's the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. Lots of really good plants that we hope you'll get a chance to grow in areas around your home. Now if you've been watching any of the other videos that we've been filming here from the nursery, I think you'll probably see that we love to grow really good plants, and more importantly than that, we love to be able to tell you about them, so that you can think about growing them in and around your home. And this particular variety of Hellebore, which is a Froschus selection called Penny's Pink, is one that I am taking a special degree of fondness in telling you about. There's lots and lots of really good things about this plant that I need you to know, so pour yourself a cup of coffee, settle down and listen, because there's really lots about this plant that are absolutely fabulous to know. The first is that this is one of the selections, and I would argue probably one of the best selections of the whole Froschus series, because as I pan down across the crop here in the nursery, you'll get some idea of just how free-flowering this particular selection is. In fact, I would almost go so far as to say that this is probably the freest flowering of all the selections that Rodney Davey, the breeder and developer of this series, has introduced. If you look at them you'll see that these plants are literally just covered with lots of buds, and then when they open, they open to these gorgeous flowers which last a really long time. Now one of the things about Hellebores is that these are not petals like we know petals on a flower, these are rather sepals, that's a kind of modified leaf, and that means that the petals don't fall off, the petals I histen to add, they don't fall off and therefore they last a really long time, which means that this gives tremendous value in the garden. Also, these tend to flower a little bit later than many of the other Hellebores that are coming up in our gardens, but still early enough to provide plenty of color and interest in the earlier part of the gardening year. Add to that, that as you see, it has this really fabulous variegated foliage, a kind of net variegation that carries through the entire year, because these are evergreen plants, and therefore at times when the plants are not in flower, you're still going to get lots of interest with this gorgeous foliage. Add to that the fact that when the foliage emerges, you'll see that it often takes on this spectacular coloring too, taking on a pink net variegation. So you can see that with all of this, there's really a lot of very fine things going for it. The other thing to mention is that these only grow less than two foot high, so it means that even if you've only got a small spot somewhere in your garden for one plant, it really will be able to fit in almost any site, anywhere. Add to that the fact, and this is very important in this region, is that Hellebore foliage is not normally bothered by deer, so you don't have to worry about deer and rabbits and things like that browsing on them, which is another big advantage. And also, I love to take these and put them into containers, because they're wonderful for brightening up pots by the front door, window boxes, basically any sort of planter that you want to add a nice cheery pet bit of interest around your home sometime in the springtime. And another advantage of this also is, that they're remarkably hardy and resilient too. In fact, at this time of year when they're flowering, they will take quite cold temperatures and fluctuating temperatures at that. This is a tricky time to get plants to put into a container, because often we have frosty or cold nights, and guess what? These flowers will stand up very well to those fluctuating temperatures and even windy conditions too. So if you haven't thought about growing these before, certainly think about doing them, and if you've got a dappled shade area, a lightly shaded area, perhaps a woodland garden or a bed that's perhaps shaded by a tall building or something like that, guess what? These are going to absolutely love to grow in that sort of situation. Just a word now about the other thing about this variety, and that is that it's also one of the most vigorous in the series. So when you plant these out, dig a good sized hole, incorporate plenty of organic matter, because they love lots of humus in the soil, water them well of course until they get established, and thereafter you should find that really they require very little maintenance, except perhaps put down a mulch, and you'll find that they'll establish and grow away very well without needing a whole lot of care and attention. Lots of really fabulous ways that you can put them in, either as a single plant on its own, perhaps in combination with other early flowering shrubs and ground covering plants, but also you could plant these in huge drips so that you're able to enjoy all of these fabulous flowers. Now I'm not finished yet, so take another drink of your coffee, because I want to tell you about the spectacular breeding work that the man who developed these has really done. His name is Rodney Davey, he had a little nursery in Devon in southwest England, took him 12 to 15 years developing these varieties, and what he did is that he used multiple species, multiple Hellebore species, and patiently back-crossed and crossed them to create these selections that inherit all of the merits of the species that he was using. For instance, if you look at these flowers now, you see how they're all facing outwards, and you think about the Lenten Rose that many of us love to grow, Helleboreus Hybridus, and think about how the flowers droop down on these, well guess what? Look how these all face outwards, so they give you a better show. Then look closely at the head of each of these flower stems, and you'll see that they have multiple buds on the stems. That's another genetic trait that he managed to breed into them, so that they've got these multiple flower heads that keep, of course, the color going on through a longer period, and give us a much better show. Then of course, add to that the foliage, and you can begin to see why I am so fond of this variety. But hold on for a moment, because I want to tell you about how this plant come to be called Penny's Pink. You see, it's named after the influential garden writer Penelope Hobhouse, who incidentally hails from the same neck of the woods as myself, Northern Ireland. Now as you probably know, Penelope Hobhouse is a well-known broadcaster, garden designer, and author of several books. She's designed some very nice gardens, including one for Her Majesty the Queen Mother, and over the years she's really contributed a lot to British horticulture, and I suppose that's probably one of the reasons why she was awarded the highest possible order by the Royal Horticultural Society, the Victoria Medal of Honour, and why she was also mentioned in the Queen's Honours list, and was given an MBE, Member of the British Empire. Now it just so happens that Penny had a garden not that far away from where Rodney and Linda Windsor had their nursery. She started out as a customer, and then as often happens, they became friends, and over the years Rodney would help her with some very good plants and little snippets of advice, and meanwhile Penelope would help promote their nursery, and as a mark of respect for their friendship, whenever Rodney developed this variety, he decided to honour her with the name Penny's Pink. So as you can see, this is really a fabulous plant that I am really delighted to tell you about, and one final thing I want to mention, and that is that if you're somebody who likes to bring flowers in from the garden, and put them in a vase of water, guess what? These make really good cut flowers too. The only little tip I want to mention is, that you pick them just at the stage when you see these yellow stamens in the middle of the flower, when they begin to mature, that's the flowers that is, these stamens will drop off, and at that point, that's the time to pick your stems, put them in a vase of water, and you'll be delighted how long they last. So Helleborus Frostkiss, Penny's Pink, a really delightful, fantastic little early flowering perennial that you simply just have to have around your home somewhere.