By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

Among the hellebores offered by Great Garden Plants this year, a couple of excellent yellows and a good black, all bred by Ernie and Marietta O’Byrne, stand out.

Yellows. ‘Mellow Yellow’ is an intensely colored, single-flowered variety with red markings at the base of the stamens, and ‘Golden Lotus’ has a lovely double array of yellow petals with green bases and yellow anthers.

Black. 'London Fog' is their entry here—a dark beauty that really stands out above green moss or white snow.

Like most hellebores, these are at their glory in winter, when not much else in flowering, and grow in all but desert and coldest-winter climates. Both are available in limited quantities.

For more about hellebores, read Easy Color for Winter Gardens by Sunset's Julie Chai.

photos by Chris Hansen