Quiet and subtle: low- growing, with down-facing blooms in a subtle grey-blue-purple, but immensely floriferous and reliable and the earliest of all the slates to flower.

It came from Adtian at Southease Hellebores in Sussex, who was breeding dark strains at the time.

One of of my first – and only – batch of bought-in hellebores. It soon became apparent that there was a wealth of forms and colours to be evaluated and worked on, among ypung plants and established clumps, and that introducing more potential breeding material would just be a distraction.