The History of Hellebore

This time of year, we begin to harvest our first hellebore blooms. They are a subtle, but welcome foil to the otherwise still bloomless rows of flowers. Hellebore is also known as Christmas Rose, Lenten Rose, Oracle Rose, and the less lovely name, Sneezewort. The legends surrounding Helleborus are as varied as its common names.

If you grind the plant into a fine powder, it does indeed induce sneezing, and in medieval times, it was used to help those afflicted with evil spirits to sneeze the spirits out.

The story of the Christmas Rose moniker is much more endearing. A little girl wanted to take flowers to the newborn baby Jesus. But because it was winter, she couldn’t find any flowers by the wayside. She began to cry. As her tears fell on the ground, beautiful rose-like flowers began to grow. The little girl was delighted, and immediately she gathered a bouquet and took them to Mary and baby Jesus.

Helleborus was given the name Oracle Rose because people used them to forecast the weather. Farmers would put hellebore buds in twelve glasses of water, each one representing a month of the year. If a bud opened by Christmas Eve, the farmer could expect seasonable weather that month.

In more recent times, hellebore has come to symbolize peacefulness, quietude, purity, and calmness.

We love the way the blooms always compliment and play nicely with other flowers when we use them in designs.

In our growing and in our business practices, we value relationships, cooperation, and community over competition. We grow and work with flowers, with our customers, and with each other out of sense of joy and love. The tiny, exquisite Helleborus is a good partner in expressing our values.