Hellebores in the Snow (gouache style)

Hellebores are evergreen perennials in the buttercup family, native to Europe and western Asia. The true Christmas rose is Helleborus niger, whose white flowers often blush pink as they age. Most garden hellebores in pink, plum and speckled shades are hybrids, sold as Helleborus x hybridus or Lenten roses, and they flower from late winter into spring. What look like petals are really sepals, which is why the flowers last so long. All parts of the plant are poisonous.

Hellebores like humus-rich soil that holds moisture but drains well, in light or dappled shade, and they're content under deciduous shrubs or at the foot of a wall. Plant in autumn or early spring and mulch with leaf mould or garden compost. In December or January, cut last year's leaves off Lenten hybrids at the base: it shows off the flowers and helps control leaf spot. The early flowers give bees pollen and nectar on mild winter days, so plant them where you'll pass often.

Pink and white hellebores push up through snow at the foot of an old brick wall in this picture. The wall gives shelter, the snow gives contrast, and the flowers are open while almost everything else waits for spring. That's the moment hellebores are grown for: colour arriving in the hardest weeks of the year.