Christmas Rose
Helleborus niger
The classic Christmas rose: pure white cups with gold centres open in the depths of winter above a low clump of leathery evergreen leaves, lovely by a path or in pots, and deer and rabbits leave it alone. Give it shade and rich, well-drained soil, and let it settle; it starts slowly and dislikes being moved.
- Mature size
- 1 × 1 ft
- 0.3 × 0.4 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Medium
- Blooms
- Jan–Mar
Christmas Rose at its mature size
A mature Christmas Rose grows 6 to 12 inches tall and 10 to 18 inches wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Perennials.com.
Through the year
What Christmas Rose looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In flower · Jan–Mar
The same low clump with nodding white cup-shaped flowers with gold centres just above the leaves.
In leaf · Apr–Dec
The evergreen leafy clump, no flowers.
Growing Christmas Rose
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Groundcover, shade garden, deer resistant, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Central Europe and Southern Europe
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Christmas Rose, that’s about 1 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Christmas Rose in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hellebores
Christmas Rose
Pink Frost Hellebore
Bear's Foot Hellebore
Lenten RoseAll drawn to the same scale.