The plants to give for Christmas which will keep flowering for years
John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries grows thousands of Christmas plants each year — making him one of our Christmas heroes. Here are his tips for the best ones to give.
This Christmas, Country Life is raising a glass to the unsung heroes who work all year round to make our seasonal celebrations special. All their stories will be collected together on our Christmas section.
Today, it's the turn of plantsman and nursery owner John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries.
Give someone a hellebore for Christmas and you are offering both hope and consolation through the dark days of winter. ‘Hellebores are one of the first intimations of spring,’ says renowned plantsman John Massey. ‘They will carry on all the way through to March.’
Mr Massey’s hellebore garden hybrids have been bred over 35 years at his Ashwood Nurseries near Kinver in the West Midlands and are known as simply the best in the world. ‘They come in every colour apart from true blue,’ he explains.
Shouldn’t one give the white, so-called Christmas rose? ‘That’s Helleborus niger and is possibly the most difficult to grow outside,’ he warns. ‘Modern varieties have been forced to flower early and tend to be grown as a throw-away plant just for Christmas.’ Better, he suggests, to give Helleborus orientalis, known as the Lenten rose, which comes in many colours, as well as spotted and blotched.
Anyone for hellebores?
A good present would be a container planted with three flowering-sized varieties, which might include ‘Anna’s Red’ (named after garden writer Anna Pavord), ‘Penny’s Pink’ and ‘Frostkiss’, with its especially lovely marbled foliage. ‘It’s a good starter collection and can be positioned to be seen from the house. It will go on for years in the container and later go into the garden. You can take the heads off and float them in a wide bowl on the lunch table, too.’
From Christmas onwards, visitors can view a display of hellebores in Ashwood’s top green-house, together with other winter-flowering plants, such as cyclamen and witch hazel. His favourite hellebore? ‘It’s got to be the Picotee garden hybrid, pinkish markings on the outside of a white flower: very elegant indeed.’
John Massey's Christmas: ‘Taking the dogs for a walk. The two border collies are my family. My garden backs onto the Staffs-Worcs canal and there is hardly anyone about on Christmas Day so we have it to ourselves.’
John Massey’s eight-acre garden opens every Saturday for charity — www.ashwoodnurseries.com
