Two favorites in the Ranunculus family are flowering now in January. The first is the familiar Helleborus niger. Below is our clump of Helleborus niger ‘Sunny Border’ in early January. This Christmas rose prefers a more open shade to even a few hours of morning sun, and very well drained soil that never stays wet.
The other is Urophysa henryi, a Chinese helleborus relative, also in the Ranunculus family. It’s more closely related to Anemone and Isopyron, both which have North American counterparts. Urophysa is a plant that loves dry crevices, and isn’t likely to thrive in the garden outside of those habitats. To our knowledge, this is one of the first offerings of these rock garden gems. Despite being particular about its garden habitat, it has proven incredibly easy in container culture. As far as winter hardiness, we really don’t know. We’ve listed it as Zone 6a-9a, but we’d be surprised if wasn’t fine in Zone 5, but it’s just so new to cultivation, all we can do is guess.
Below is our first crop in the nursery. Without hand pollinating our garden plant, we wouldn’t have been able to share these.
