Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Pink Frost’

Oh my!  I’ve developed a serious case of plant lust…I’m totally smitten with this new hellebore, she’s a beauty!  Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Pink Frost’ is one of the latest from Germany and the breeding program of Josef Heuger’s Helleborus Gold Collection (HGC).

Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Pink Frost’

I was on the lookout for an exceptional hellebore to plant beside the front steps of my house and had every intention of buying a beautiful specimen of Helleborus x ericsmithii ‘Winter Moonbeam’ that we had at the garden centre, in fact I had stashed one in the staff room, but then I saw ‘Pink Frost’.

Helleborus x ericsmithii 'Winter Moonbeam'

Winter Moonbeam is lovely, flaunting sturdy, silvery mottled foliage and large, outfacing blooms that begin white and age through pink to red.  I may succumb to this one as well, but for now I had to bring home Pink Frost.  It was the delicate shade of pink atop claret coloured stems that did me in…so much glowing pink…and I’m not a big fan of pink!

I love the colourful stems of Pink Frost

There’s something about this cultivar though, it seems to me a shade of pink that would suggest frailty, yet the flowers and the stems that hold them exude vigour and vitality.  The grower has removed the old foliage so I can’t really judge it firsthand, and this year’s new foliage is just beginning to grow, but a little internet research shows that Pink Frost has beautiful silver veined leaves tinged with the same claret as the stems.

Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Pink Frost’ She's a beauty!

If you find one of these lovely Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Pink Frost’ for your own garden, you should plant it where the rising or setting sun can illuminate the blossoms, and then you’ll see why I fell in love.