Botanical name: Helleborus foetidus
Folk names: stinking hellebore (I can’t smell anything!)

Type: Perennial

Wildlife: Pollen and nectar for winter-active bumblebees: a recommended winter-spring plant by Bumblebee Conservation. Bumblebees get quite covered in the pollen! Bee flies have been seen hovering near its flowers in my garden and it may be used by early spring-flying solitary bees and emerging queen bumblebees. The hedgehogs use it as cover when navigating the garden.

Flowers: January to March/April

Decorative merit: Charmingly-sized, drooping, bell-like flowers in a soft green that lights up in the new year sun. Sepal edges turn a delightful crimson. Darker, evergreen leaves with a long, pointed shape adding contrast and interest, keeping their colour and shape through the year unlike some hellebore cultivars.

Where: Sun or shade. Borders. Beneath trees / dry root zones (mine pops up decoratively in awkward places, for example softening an awkward corner beneath conifer trees and providing ground cover in a shady spot).

Folklore: Do you have any stories about our native hellebore? Share them here.

Please note: The RHS advises this can plant can be a skin irritant and should not be consumed (including by pets).

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank