PA recent visit to our daughter’s “neck of the woods” in Shoreditch, London ensured some fine exploration. One of the highlights was a walk down Columbia Road on the Sunday morning to enjoy the bustling flower market. I have seldom seen such a frenzy of activity as bunches of flowers, trays of sweetly-scented cyclamen and hundreds of Christmas trees were trundled off to people’s homes – bargains galore! A stark reminder of the season came in the form of some well-flowered potted plants of the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger, I found myself studying each pot, in search of superior flowering forms.

My parents grow their hellebores on the south side of the house in a well-drained bed and they regularly flower for Christmas. My plants flower much later and I put that down to, both aspect and variety.

My early recollection of the diversity of this hellebore came when I carried out my apprenticeship at the Munich Botanic Garden. This is surely one of the most celebrated of Botanic Gardens in Europe and a careful search through the gardens in the winter and early spring will provide real reward.

Let me give a brief introduction to this garden. It was founded in 1812 at the location of Karlsplatz, which is today in the core of the city centre, thronged with traffic, akin to Picadilly Circus. In 1910, Karl von Goebel, who was at that time the director of the old gardens in Nymphenburg, arranged to move the Botanic Gardens to the south-west outskirts of the city.  Four years later the gardens were opened to the public and today, annually, a little under half a million visitors take a stroll, enjoying the varied landscape, vast array of plants and the simple recreation associated with a memorable visit.

The overall area covered by the garden is 20 hectares and I have found that it is possible to make a good exploration of the tropical and cold glasshouse complex, together with the outdoor gardens, comfortably in a day. There is a very well-appointed restaurant and terrace in the garden to prolong the experience.

During a short stay in Munich last winter (2011) I was able to thoroughly explore the garden and spent some time enjoying the area adjacent to the famous Alpine House. There were fine stands of snowdrops with some fine named-cultivars, along with Primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii naturalised in its full range of colours.

A colourful array of Witch Hazel cultivars were tastefully planted with forms of Viburnum, including V. x bodnantense ‘Deben’. A wander round the Rock Garden was also full of surprises, despite the fact that it was still protected by its winter cover from spruce branches. I found some fabulous forms of Helleborus niger, seeding about in an orderly manner, along with its geographic variant, H. niger subsp. macranthus. Cyclamen coum was outstanding in its best forms and the slugs had temporarily avoided the over-wintering buds of Adonis amurensis and the flowering clumps were of outstanding quality.

This is just a “taster”, please make a trip to this vibrant city and be sure to visit this beautifully designed garden, whatever the season.