Helleborus ‘First Dance’ Wedding Party

A member of the Wedding Party series, Helleborus ‘First Dance’ is an evergreen perennial offering year-round interest. Heavy blooming from early to mid-spring, ‘First Dance’ sets 2- to 2-inch, brilliantly colored yellow double flowers, some with a thin wine picotee and veining. Borne on long, sturdy stems above glossy, dark green leaves, the nodding flowers last a long time, attract bees, and make cute kitchen table bouquets or lovely additions to cut floral arrangements.

This vigorous herbaceous plant, also known as a Lenten rose or hellebore, ‘First Dance’ has a bushy, upright, clump-forming habit and slow growth rate. Shown to best effect when massed or grouped in beds, borders, and patio pots or under a high-branched deciduous tree or large shrub, protected from strong winter winds. The plant makes a lovely groundcover and will naturalize, slowly spreading via rhizomatous roots. It also self-seeds in ideal growing conditions but will not become invasive.

Cold hardy, easy to grow, and low maintenance, hellebore grows best in dappled to full shade locations with organically rich, moist, well-draining soil, having an alkaline pH. However, it grows well in most soils, including chalk, clay, and loam, and in most growing conditions. The plant is drought tolerant once established, but it will not tolerate extremely wet, waterlogged soils. It is deer and rabbit resistant and salt tolerant.