Helleborus Plant Named 'Snow Love' Has Light Green Flowers

Summary: A Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love,’ a new cultivar by Belgian hellebore breeder Thierry van Paemel, has light green flowers.

closeup of flower of Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love’ included in patent application filed Oct. 29, 2007, with United States Patent and Trademark Office: Thierry van Paemel, Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

A Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love,’ a new variety of Helleborus x niger cultivar by Belgian hellebore breeder Thierry van Paemel, has light green flowers and leathery, smooth dark green leaves.

On Oct. 29, 2007, Thierry van Paemel filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his horticultural invention, a Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love.’ He listed Compass Plants B.V. of Hillegom, South Holland province, western Netherlands, as assignee.

Primary examiner Kent L. Bell reviewed the application for patenting van Paemel’s new variety. On Dec. 9, 2008, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office assigned plant patent number 19,559 to a Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love.’

The application describes plants that were grown outdoors during winter in containers at the inventor’s nursery, Kwekerij Het Wilgenbroek BVBA, in Oostkamp, West Flanders province, northwestern Belgium. Day temperatures during production ranged from about 4 degrees to about 15 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees to 59 degrees Fahrenheit). Night temperatures ranged from about minus 1 degree to about 8 degrees Celsius (30.2 degrees to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Helleborus ‘Candy Love’ has an upright, flattened globular, mounded shape. Plant height measures about 28.7 centimeters (11.29 inches). ‘Candy Love’ spreads to a diameter of about 32.8 centimeters (12.91 inches).

‘Candy Love’ puts forth leaves at the plant’s base in a circular arrangement known as a basal rosette. Each basal rosette comprises about 10 leaves.

The new variety’s palmately compound leaves comprise five serrated leaflets radiating from a common point. Leaflets have shapes that are narrowly elliptical to obovate (Latin: ob-, “against” + ovatus, “egg-shaped”).

Leaves have lengths of about 17.1 centimeters (6.73 inches) and widths of about 18.4 centimeters (7.24 inches). Lateral leaflets display lengths of about 9.7 centimeters (3.81 inches) and widths of about 4 centimeters (1.57 inches). Larger, terminal leaflets have lengths of about 11.7 centimeters (4.6 inches) and widths of about 4.8 centimeters (1.88 inches).

Upper surfaces of mature foliage are dark green (Royal Horticultural Society colors 139A to 147A), with dark green to light green (RHS 144A to 144B) venation. Lower surfaces of mature foliage are brown green (RHS 147B) with brown purple (RHS 183B) veins.

Nodding, outward facing flowers perch, with a free flowering habit, atop flower stems. A long flowering period ranges naturally from December through April. Each flower, which is not persistent, lasts for about 10 days.

Each flower consists of a single whorl of five sepals. Sepals have lengths of about 4.1 centimeters (1.61 inches) and widths of about 3.5 centimeters (1.37 inches).

The ovate to broadly elliptical shape of sepals becomes obtuse, or bluntly rounded, at the tips. Margins and surface textures are smooth.

Fully opened flowers have light green (Royal Horticultural Society color 145D) upper surfaces that become light green (RHS 144B) toward the base. With development, upper surface coloring is closer to dark green (RHS 143B to 143C), with light green (RHS N144A) margins.

Lower surfaces of fully opened flowers are light green (RHS 145B to 145C), becoming light green (RHS 145A) toward the base. With development, lower surface coloring is close to brown green (RHS 146C) with brown (RHS 176B) venation.

The Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love’ is the product of a cross-pollination program conducted by Thierry van Paemel at his nursery. The single flowering plant that the inventor discovered and selected numbers among the progeny of a proprietary selection of seed and pollen parents designated as Wilgenbroek Selection. As seed parents, females belonged to Helleborus niger, known commonly as black hellebore or Christmas rose. Male, or pollen, parents belonged to Helleborus x sternii, known commonly as Stern's hellebore.

Helleborus ‘Snow Love’ is a good performer in bedded and container gardens. The hellebore’s lengthy blooming period, from winter into spring, is undaunted by elemental challenges from rain and wind. ‘Snow Love’ tolerates a wide temperature range of about minus 20 degrees to about 30 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees to 86 degrees Fahrenheit).

A Helleborus plant named 'Snow Love' sells commercially under the trade name 'Snow Love' in Thierry van Paemel's Winter Magic™ series. The series comprises hellebores that are deer proof, drought resistant and shade tolerant. All selections in the series feature a beautiful powder-gray veil over their leathery leaves.

‘Snow Love’ presents appealing contrasts of light green flowers and dark green foliage that stand out in winter and spring gardens.

closeup of leaf (left) and 'Snow Love' in container; images included in patent application filed Oct. 29, 2007, with United States Patent and Trademark Office: Thierry van Paemel, Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

image of Helleborus plant named ‘Snow Love’ included in patent application filed Oct. 29, 2007, with United States Patent and Trademark Office: Thierry van Paemel, Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP019559

closeup of leaf (left) and 'Snow Love' in container (right): images included in patent application filed Oct. 29, 2007, with United States Patent and Trademark Office: Thierry van Paemel, Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

For further information:

Burrell, C. Colston; Judith Knott Tyler. Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide. Portland OR: Timber Press, 2006.

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Available @ http://www.oostendewerkt.be/economisch-nieuws-1/Archief-2010/archief-2008/amper-n-bezwaarschrift-tegen-heraanleg-zeedijk/archief-2009/kweker-thierry-van-paemel-is-creatiefste-ondernemer

"Hellebore (Helleborus Winter Magic™ Snow Love)." The National Gardening Association > Plants Database > Hellebores.
Available @ http://garden.org/plants/view/236926/Hellebore-Helleborus-Winter-Magic-Snow-Love/

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Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP021149

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Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP019413

“Helleborus Plant Named ‘Emma.’” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). June 29, 2010.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP021126

“Helleborus Plant Named ‘Snow Love.’” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW), Dec. 9, 2008.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP019559

“Helleborus x nigercors ‘Snow Love.’” Perennials > Plants.
Available @ http://www.perennials.com/plants/helleborus-nigercors-snow-love.html

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. “Document TGP/14: Glossary of Technical, Botanical and Statistical Terms Used in UPOV Documents.”  UPOV (Union Internationale Pour la Protection des Obtentions Végétales). Dec. 9, 2006.
Available @ http://www.upov.org/edocs/mdocs/upov/en/tc_edc/2007/tgp_14_draft_1_section_2_3_2.pdf

“Lenteroos ‘Alexia.’” Mijn Tuin > Planten.
Available @ https://www.mijntuin.org/plants/5238-lenteroos-alexia

Marriner, Derdriu. “Helleborus ‘Candy Love' Has Greenish White Flowers With Reddish Edges.” Earth and Space News. Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/10/helleborus-candy-love-has-greenish.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Helleborus Plant Named ‘Alexia’ Has Light Green Flowers.” Earth and Space News. Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/10/helleborus-plant-named-alexia-has-light.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Helleborus Plant Named ‘Emma' Has White to Greenish Purple Flowers.” Earth and Space News. Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/10/helleborus-plant-named-emma-has-white.html

“The Parts of a Flower.” The Robinson Library > Science > Botany > Plant Anatomy.
Available @ http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/science/botany/anatomy/flowerparts.htm

Rice, Graham; Elizabeth Strangman. The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hellebores. Newton Abbot, England: David and Charles, 2005.