Hellebores

I remember when I was in my teens, somebody gave my sister a bunch of Hellebores - they were called Lenten Roses at the time - and I thought they were the strangest and most delicate flower I had ever seen, something about the fleshiness and the translucent nature of the flower. Some years back I tried growing hellebores but they always seemed to get black spot and didn’t look like my memory of them. Now, fifty odd years on from my first impression of them, I managed to grow some healthy hellebores. You need to sear the stems in boiling water for half a minute after you cut them, otherwise they soon wilt, but these should be good for a week or so.