The Lenten Rose

Hellebores are members of the buttercup family, and you can see the resemblance in the pink sepals. They bloom as early as December, giving them their common name, the Christmas rose. The other English name for H. Hybridus is Lenten rose, which is the time this one blooms outside our kitchen door. Hellebores are beautiful in woodland settings, but it's nice to have them planted close in-- something pretty to look at in the dismal months. I also have an interesting greenish white one that my mother-in-law bought me years ago at the Weyerhauser garden shop.

You may know a famous English Christmas carol called Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming. It originated in an old German hymn called Winterblumlein which had an astonishing twenty-two verses! (We know the Lutherans love their music :-) Anyway, the hymn tells the story of the nativity and speaks about a "rose" blooming on a cold, snowy night at Christmas. This rose could not be a true rosa, but was more likely a winter hellebore.

This plant has a long recorded history and it's been the subject of myth and superstition, I suppose because of the unusual blooming habit. The plant is poisonous, but that didn't stop anyone from using it for "medicinal" purposes. Monastery herbalists used the hellebore to cure lunacy and other vague, medieval ailments like "excess of bile." It was also good for killing rats and wolves, or unfortunate livestock who happened to eat it. ( I understand that buttercups are also toxic to horses and cattle.) The ancient Roman "naturalist" and quack Pliny the Elder listed twenty remedies derived from the black hellebore. He also wrote it is not recommended to give hellebore to "aged persons, children, persons of an effeminate body or mind, a timorous disposition, or a tender constitution."
Good advice, Pliny.