Hellebores are some of the best perennial flowers, blooming especially in the dead of winter, and easy to grow, but American gardeners don't seem to know much about them. Here's the best book on the subject, by wellknown garden writer Graham Rice and plantswoman Liz Strangman, who celebrate an extraordinary variety of types and species.
Beautifully-illustrated (with many excellent group shots of single flowers), the text sparkles (as is Graham Rice's penchant), covering such topics as hybrids in the wild and in gardens, an encyclopedia section of the species, how to breed hellebores, the national collections in britain, cultivation, plant associations, with an entire chapter devoted just to the orientalis hybrids. There's also a chapter devoted to "people and their plants" with such sections as "confessions of a hellebore addict" and "margery fish and hellebores at East Lambrook".
Even though these are British authors, this is an easy book to transpose into American growing, with a chapter devoted to "Hellebores in America".
This is a splendid book, well worth buying.