Unfamiliar plant

[Trevor Ellis]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone is familiar with and knows the name of this plant. It was in the garden of my present home when we moved in. I'm not familiar with it and have never gotten round to identify it. It's evergreen and hardy and has never flowered since we've been here (about 4/5 years). 

[Palustris]

If the leaves smell rather bad then it is Helleborus foetidus. to go by the look of it. Green flowers in late Winter.

[Trevor Ellis]

I'm absolutely sure that you're right Eric. I simply hadn't made the connection between the other Hellebores in the garden and this one. Though the other types generally have much broader leaves which generate from soil level, the leaf margins should have given me a clue at least. Strange thing is that I don't remember it ever flowering. Maybe I don't venture where it is in late winter to see them and it's not in part of the garden where perhaps I don't get close enough to it to smell it! I'll make a point to investigate both attributes. It grows very well in extremely dry soil near some huge conifers (which I wish weren't  there!) and under a bottom pruned Juniper. Very toxic this one too it seems yet with beautiful foliage.

Thanks for the posting Eric.

Cheers,
Trevor

[Palustris]

You will know if it flowers and sets seed. There will be millions of self sown plants around. I spend a fair amount of time removing this from the gravel paths.
Glad to be able to help.

[Trevor Ellis]

Have been doing a bit of digging to find the variety of this plant and came across this site ]http://www.thimblefarms.com/hellebore.html[/url]. It has some really excellent photographs of dozens of hellebores with some wonderful colours and forms. It's a Canadian site and well worth a look for Hellebore enthusiasts even if only for reference. Haven't yet surely identified the variety of Helleborus foetidus that I have though. There is an interesting variety named 'Wester Flisk' that has the same bronze/pewter leaves as mine but it also has some red at the base of the leaves too. Maybe I'll have to get one in addition. It's really attractive.

Trevor

[Palustris]

Got that one somewhere.