Lenten Roses Make Wonderful Cut Flowers

Lenten Roses make wonderful cut flowers but there are a few things you should know.  It is important to look at the flowers and try not to use them as cut flowers until after the flowers have been pollenated and the little seed pods have begun to form in the center of the flower.

You will notice that once the flower has been pollenated and the seed pods begin to grow, the flower stalk grows taller and more ridged.  The purpose here, in nature, is to allow the flower to grow tall enough to ensure that when the seeds ripen and are ready to fall from the flower, the flower will lean over so that the seeds will fall to the outside of the mother plant where the seeds will have the best chance of survival.

Lenten Roses to the people 

The picture below has 40 stems.  Each stem has 4-7 flowers........that's a lot of flowers :-)

Enjoy

Christmas Rose

I grow a lot of Lenten Roses.  Fields of Lenten Roses.  Last year I harvested a shoe box full of seeds.  I couldn't begin to guess how many tens of thousands of seed were in that box.  To plant them all I tilled up thousands of square feet with my tractor and broadcasted the seed like chicken feed.  The field in the picture above was planted that way back in 2003.  Beautiful.

Each year, around this time, I watch the gardens as the old growth from last years perennial cycle lays over to die and decompose while the new growth begins, sending up its initial volley of foliage shoots.  The flower stalks come next but oh my gosh, there here.  Mid December and my Lenten Roses are beginning to bloom.  Two years ago none of this happened until late Feburary but that's a post for a different day.

This post is about the Christmas Rose, the second 'common name' for the hellebore Orientalis.  The first common name for h.Orientalis is the Lenten Rose.  So why Christmas Rose.  Here's my observation.  With all  the thousands of Lenten Roses growing here on my farm, the earliest flowers that bloom are almost always white.  I don't know why that is but it surely defines why this color variant of the h.Orientalis could take the name of Christmas Rose.  As we see this year, the whites are unfolding their blooms just in time for Christmas.

Lenten Roses + Full Bloom + What's up with that.....a month early

5-6 week early. From last years bloom cycle. That's pretty remarkable. Usually year by year the perennial cycle of plants will nudge their time frame a little early or a little later than the previous year but 5-6 week in one year. That pretty remarkable.

Well, here we are in full bloom. Beautiful non the less.

About Us

LENTENROSE.COM was founded in 1999 by Richard Giardini, in Athens Georgia. He began his first Lenten Rose garden on the shrub border surrounding his house from a handful of seeds donated by a generous neighbor. Shortly thereafter, his humble garden grew to encompass his whole back yard! In 2001, Richard purchased five overgrown wooded acres where he and his partner Sky continued growing and growing and growing more Lenten Roses.

Lentenrose.com now occupies two properties and almost 10 acres boasting over 20,000 fully grown 5 to 10 year old plants, and yearlings numbering in the, well, too many to count.

Currently we are specializing in seeds, 2 year olds, flowering mature plants and cut flowers.

98% of sales are internet based. All plants are sold and shipped moistened bare root.

LENTENROSE.COM no longer sells containers.

See Richard's current project here: www.dashboardangel.com

"don't drive faster than your angel can fly!"

Sky gets published! (click here to learn more)

Shipping Day at www.lentenrose.com!

Today is Shipping day at www.lentenrose.com. We have had our best week on Record. The boxes are especially colorful thanks to our "free Mature plant with every order Promotion" -which will run through the end of April:-)
A special thanks to all the Master Gardeners who have helped to support my little Lenten Rose business,
sky

Lenten Rose Flowers

Yesterday, I took a stroll through our late Winter Lenten Rose Garden here at www.lentenrose.com.. I am delighted!
Some flowers nodding, others with their speckled faces stretching toward the sun. Some beautiful buds tightly woven. Many of my flowers have already been pollinated, forming their hopeful seed pods.
Here are some photos of my late winter journey. Enjoy!

Now taking Pre-Orders for 2010 Seed Harvest.

Estimated 2010 Seed Harvest: 500,000!

Shaping up your Lenten Rose bed.

In the Garden

Do your penance and cut old leaves of the Lenten rose

Ciscoe Morris suggests sprucing up your old Helleborus orientalis (Lenten rose) by cutting the old foliage back to the new stems emerging at the base. Treat Botrytis on helleborus before it ruins the plant. It is not too late to shape up a hedge.

It wasn't that long ago when Helleborus orientalis (Lenten rose) was available only with single nodding flowers in limited colors. Now, thanks to an amazing hybrid program, nurseries are able to offer varieties with spectacular multi-petaled, upward-facing blooms that come in practically any color imaginable, even black!

If you buy a new one, you won't need to cut the foliage back until next year.

If, on the other hand, you have an established Lenten rose growing in your garden, it's time to cut the old foliage back to the new stems emerging from the base. The new foliage will grow up fresh and attractive, but if you leave the old growth it will soon turn ratty and detract from the appearance of the plant. The old leaves also often harbor botrytis, a fungus disease that causes brown spots on foliage and the flowers, and are best removed to help prevent spread of the disease.

Best of all, once the old foliage is out of the way, the soon-to-form blooms will show up better and you'll get to enjoy the long-lasting flowers from winter into spring.

Prevent disease on hellebores

Botrytis is a fungus disease that attacks a wide variety of plants, and as mentioned above it often shows up on Lenten rose, as well as other varieties of Helleborus.

Favored by cool, wet weather, botrytis first appears as water-soaked spots on leaves and stems but soon enlarges to form dry, brown blotches. In severe cases, the disease can attack the flowers, making them unsightly and short-lived. Fortunately there's an easy way to prevent botrytis from ruining the appearance of your hellebore.

Pick up some ½-inch lime chips and simply spread them about a half-inch thick under the entire plant. The chips prevent disease spores from splashing up on the foliage and they sweeten the soil by raising pH, which is beneficial for hellebores. Manufacturers Mineral, 1215 Monster Road S.W. in Renton, is the only place in Western Washington I know of that has lime chips. The chips are inexpensive (less than $5 per bag) which is lucky, because you'll need the money you save to pay for a chiropractor. The smallest size is a 50-pound bag!

Neaten up your hedge

If you didn't neaten up your hedge in the fall, there's no reason to leave it ragged and uneven-looking. This is the perfect time to don the hedge shears and neaten it up. When shearing the hedge, remember to trim so that the bottom is slightly wider than the top, or the lower section will become bare for lack of sun. If your hedge has grown bigger or wider than desired, wait until spring to do major renovation by cutting back drastically to bare wood. Hard pruning at this time of year won't do serious harm to your hedge, but new growth won't grow back to cover the bare wood until spring, leaving your handiwork there for your neighbors to appreciate all winter long.

Ciscoe Morris: ciscoe@ciscoe.com. "Gardening with Ciscoe" airs at 10 a.m. Saturdays on KING-TV.