Lenten Rose
Helleborus orientalis
An evergreen shade perennial whose nodding flowers push up in late winter, when little else blooms, and last for weeks, lovely at a border's front or in a woodland garden, and deer leave it alone. Give it rich, well-drained soil out of bright winter sun and heat, and keep it out of soggy ground.
- Mature size
- 2 × 2.5 ft
- 0.6 × 0.7 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–9a
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Jan–Apr
Lenten Rose at its mature size
A mature Lenten Rose grows 18 to 24 inches tall and 24 to 30 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: gardenia.net.
Through the year
What Lenten Rose looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · May–Jan
Low mound of leathery glossy dark green divided leaves, no flowers.
In flower · Feb–Apr
Nodding saucer flowers in mixed plum, pink and cream above the leathery leaves.
Photos
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Growing Lenten Rose
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Shade garden, deer resistant, and winter interest
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Balkans, Turkey, and Caucasus
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Lenten Rose, that’s about 2.5 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 Lenten Rose in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hellebores
Pink Frost Hellebore
Bear's Foot Hellebore
Lenten Rose
Corsican HelleboreAll drawn to the same scale.