The Christmas Rose, that is, technically known as Helleborus niger, “The Black Hellebore” (its roots are black). As with "primrose" (prima rosa, first flower [of spring]), hellebores aren’t even members of the rose family, being more closely related to buttercups and clematis. Like the latter, what look like their petals are actually sepals, five in number on every species, and often very persistent after pollination; the true petals are much smaller, and modified into nectaries.
The derivation of the species’ name is obscure, possibly from the Greek heleín + borá (to injure + food), referring to their toxic nature. They are an “Old World” plant family, the genus having been established by Carl Linnaeus in the first volume of his Species Plantarum (1753). All originating from somewhere in Eurasia (the greatest concentration is in the Balkans), of some 20 known species only two are native to Britain: Helleborus foetidus (“Stinking hellebore”, which doesn’t stink, at least not in my experience), and H. viridis occidentalis (“Western green hellebore”), with its odd vernacular names of “Bear’s Foot” or “Boar’s Foot”. Our own Abbot Ælfric used the term elleborus, but seemingly with a broader meaning covering various noxious plants, including hemlock.
The Christmas Rose also naturally flowers later in the winter, rather than at Christmas, though many are nowadays forced by nurserymen to do so. The Christmas association, rather like that of poinsettias, is said to derive from a legend that the flowers sprang up when the tears of a girl, who had no gift for the Christ-child in Bethlehem, hit the snowy ground. The plant is a rich source of stories, both legendary and historical: Hercules was sent mad by the goddess Juno, who made him murder his children, and hellebore was used to cure his insanity. As well as having a long association with relieving mental distress, hellebore was widely used in ancient times as a purgative medicine. However, in truth, all species in the genus contain distinctly unpleasant alkaloids, which are primarily a bitter-tasting defence mechanism against browsing animals. If ingested, these chemicals can cause severe symptoms, including burning of the mouth and throat, excessive salivation, tinnitus, vertigo, stupor, vomiting, seizures, abdominal cramping, and diarrhoea – if large amounts are consumed, death by cardiac arrest can occur. These dangers have been known for millennia: one theory of the cause of Alexander the Great’s untimely death is that he used hellebore as a purgative medicine, but overdosed, with fatal results.
Gardeners with sensitive skin should be careful when handling the plants’ leaves, since even this can cause irritation. Nonetheless, and despite all the above, hellebores are wonderful garden plants, especially for more-or-less shady areas, as long as those are not too dry. Nearly all forms are easily hardy enough to cope with an Oxfordshire winter. Their stringy or sometimes rhizomatous roots are rather brittle, so they dislike being moved, sometimes sulking for a year or so, or even dying off completely. However, if happy, some species will seed about abundantly, often producing unpredictable breaks in flower colour. In recent years, many stable hybrids, especially derived from the “Lenten Rose”, the spring-flowering Helleborus orientalis (some by crossing with the Chinese hellebore, H. thibetanus), have come on the market, extending the colour range from white and yellow via shades of pink, including spotted and picotee, through plum-red and slate-grey to almost black. Double-flowered forms are especially prized by helleborophiles (I just made that up …), and a large plant with, say, double yellow flowers and maybe spots and a contrasting “picotee” edge can command a high price (twenty or thirty pounds!) Of other species, I would especially recommend H. argutifolius, native to Corsica and Sardinia, a large (3 feet/1 metre) all-green plant of striking presence in the garden from early spring to midsummer. Inter-species hybrid hellebores have been cultivated for nearly a century: H. sternii (H. argutifolius + H. lividus), and its varietals like “Silver Dollar” and “Boughton Beauty” are excellent.
To sum up: grow hellebores, but keep children and pets away from them, and don’t lick your fingers after planting one!