GARDEN ADVICE

Holly, Ivy & The Christmas Rose

What could be more seasonal in the plant kingdom than the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger. Hellebores flower for a long period during the winter and their flowers are really quite large when compared to other winter flowering plants. The foliage gives a good amount of ground cover and they tend to prefer partial shade. Hellebores are actually part of the Buttercup family. The Christmas Rose grows to about 12 inches and has white flowers through the depths of winter from December to March. There are also a number of Hellebores which flower later in the year such as H. argutifolius with its greenish flowers during March and April and the Lenten Rose H. orientalis which flowers in many colours from white to deep wine coloured pinks. The Stinking Hellebore, H. foetidus is worth growing despite its name. Its foliage looks pretty good all year round and is accompanied by yellow green flowers from March to May.

Many of us deck the halls with boughs of holly for Christmas but Holly is much more versatile than that and some species are used in complex wood carvings and for inlaying. Ilex aquifolia is the traditional holly and has shiny dark green leaves. However, there are about 400 species of holly. Most are male or female so you need to plant more than one variety in order to have a good crop of berries. It is the female which bears the berries. For a variegated holly with golden green leaves try Madame Briot or Golden Van Tol. Other species have silver and green leaves or different coloured berries such as black (latiofolia) yellow or orange.

Not much needs to be said about Ivy which is a wonderful all purpose plant, good for indoors and out. Many Ivies have fantastic patterned leaves and can give valuable cover for difficult areas. Ivies are very hardy and suffer few pests and disease problems.

The odd one out in this festive foursome is the Mistletoe which is a parasitic plant although it can manufacture its own food as it has green leaves. It attaches itself to a host plant by its suckers and the roots enter the host and branch out inside it. Viscum album is Britain's native Mistletoe and carries white berries. It seems to choose Lime trees, Apple, Poplar, Willow and Hawthorn as its favourite hosts and, at least in Britain, does not seem to do too much damage to the host tree.