Go out with her! – The Christmas rose needs room in the cold air

Only a few flowers bloom in the conservatory, defying ice and snow. One of them is the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), also known as the snow rose.

It seems that one would draw flowers: a bright yellow dot in the middle, and five simple pure white petals around it.

Even if Christmas roses are often abandoned around Advent and Christmas: “You have to realize that these plants want to be outside,” says Joseph Heuger, Helleborus plant breeder and horticultural technician.

There are, of course, beautiful places in the garden that you can pass to often in the winter or where you can see them from the window. For example at the entrance to the house and in the family in front of the window of the living room or kitchen.

Christmas roses in the garden can grow for 30 years and more. But you should offer them something when planting in the fall and winter: “At the planting site, the soil should be humus, slightly permeable and alkaline,” advises perennial gardener Svenia Schwidtke.

Josef Heuger recommends digging the planting hole two spades deep so that the roots can develop vertically downward.

The soil is sure to be a little wet during flowering and can be drier in summer.

“This is especially the case in places where deciduous trees not only provide shade during the summer, but also conserve moisture along with the foliage.”

Joseph Heuger would have combined the Christmas rose with plants that could also contribute to winter decoration. For example, decorative bark like ‘Sibirica’ purple dogwood or the unusual growth of key hazel.

Schwedtke recommends herbal family partners, especially shade and shade plants such as liverwort and grasses, winter-flowering cyclamen, larkspur and snowdrops.

Christmas roses gather the energy to bloom in the summer months and store it in their fleshy roots. This is an advantage for the owners: there is no need to fertilize during winter flowering.

It is important to provide Christmas roses well with phosphorous-potassium fertilizers in the summer months.

Gardener Svenja Schwedkte recommends using rose or tomato fertilizer in addition to adding lime now and then. Her advice: “Work the raw eggshell in the soil around the plant when you plant it and sometimes later.”

The Christmas rose can be kept in a large enough pot. “Otherwise the roots will freeze, damaging the plant,” says Joseph Heuger.

It is recommended to put together different types and varieties of Helleborus with different flowering times – this way you will get a beautiful flower in the container for several weeks.

Plants are not suitable for the home – but their individual flowers are.

“The fallen flowers don’t stay well in the vase, but they are very cut and put into a swimming pot, they are really charming,” says Svenja Schwedtke.