A contrary plant

Our Christmas roses are just starting to bud. I have always called them Christmas roses, although I’ve been told that Christmas roses must be white, and that they symbolise purity for that reason. Around here though you can see pink, purple and green ones as well as white. I’ve heard them called Lenten roses too, and I suppose this demonstrates that seasonal names don’t always work if transferred to another hemisphere.

Google offers other names too, including Glastonbury rose and St Agnes rose. They are hellebores, not roses, and they belong to the buttercup family. The white ones are called Helleborus niger, which seems a little odd if you know your Latin.

Christmas roses are said to symbolise peace and tranquillity but they are poisonous if ingested and can give you a skin rash, which doesn’t quite go with that image of serenity. Altogether a rather contrary plant.