These (H. orientalis aka H. x hybridius) are supposed to be hardy to Zone 4 so they should do fine in pots for anyone Zone 5/6 and higher, where a good rule of thumb is to look for plants 1 - 2 zones colder than where you are. The fact that yours would be on a porch actually gives it a degree of added protection and would allow you to move it if need be. I plan to probably let it get snowed on like my heucheras, peonies, redtwig dogwood, asiatic lilies, lily of the valley, et. al, did this past winter....LOL: I recall reading some websites on them and what was mentioned is that they have been a staple in Europe but only recently have become popular and more available in the U.S. There's even a Hellebore Forum on GW too. What got me to finally try them was that one of my mother's former neighbors (who recently moved) had some planted out in a patch of soil between sidewalk blocks where a street tree once stood. For several years, I was entranced by the clumps of evergreen foliage that would be yearly dumped on by successive winter storms with over a foot of snow, yet there it was in March, sending up sturdy blooms. I finally confirmed what they were this year and when I saw some at one of the nurseries here, I decided to go for it. I had seen them in the past at some specialty nurseries, but wasn't interested then. But now that I have been adding more perennials to supplement my shrubs, it fits in nicely as an early bloomer! Note that everything I have on my balcony is in containers - trees, shrubs, vines, and various flowering perennials.

Very pretty. I've recently fallen in love with hellebores. I've always had a couple of the short white ones and didn't realize until recently that there were so many beautiful colors and shapes. Edna sent me the most wonderful plum coloed one a while back. It's gorgeous. Karyn

Just so we don't get confused, black spot (aka, hellebore leaf spot) is a totally different problem from rose black spot and is specific to hellebores only. Like Annette, I remove all the old foliage from H. xhybridus as soon as I see new growth (flower buds) emerging from the soil in late winter. Getting rid of the old foliage accomplishes various things - it reduces the potential for spreading this and other diseases, last season's foliage generally looks pretty limp and ratty by this time and will die off during the season anyway and finally, getting rid of the old foliage allows the flowers to show off to their best advantage. And the old foliage will be rapidly replaced by fresh new growth.

All of my H. foetidus (Stinking hellebore) are in full bloom, and I also have open blooms on some H. x hybridus (lenten Rose) plants. Many folks over here in eastern PA have H. niger (Christmas Rose) in bloom also, though mine are not blooming this season for some reason. All together, the season appears about 2 months early for us as regards hellebores. I have many H. foetidus and H. argutifolius seedlings already sprouted, although these generally jump up in late march, not january. George