The problem is balancing a perennial ground cover that is aggressive enough to discourage weeds with not crowding out the hellebores. Hellebores themselves will form a solid groundcover if they are happy (although it will take a while).

Wild gengers--native and others--usually need a good level of moisture to not go dormant in high summer. So if this is a dry area, wild gingers would not be a good choice.

How about mixing the hellebores with white or blue wood aster since they bloom in the fall. The wood aster make a groundcover, but not as aggressively as the dwarf acorus in the photo. And as the hellebores spread, it is a lot easier to remove wood aster than many others.

Three that immediately come to mind are Phlox stolonifera (woodland/creeping phlox), which blooms in mid-Spring and Viola walteri 'Silver Gem' (pictured) which has exquisite semi-evergreen foliage (mine remained evergreen in Zone 7A last winter). Another spring into summer-blooming option with yellow flowers is Chrysogonum virginianum (link). None of these is terribly aggressive.

The asters mentioned above are nice complements for hellebores but they tend to get some height (12-24 inches) so I don't consider them a groundcover that would work well under them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chrysogonum virginianum

Wow, that viola is very nice! One thing about the chrysogonum - it is, IMO, just beautiful in full bloom, and very attractive when not in bloom. However, it does seem to like moisture, in my experience. I had a large swath of it, built up over a few years probably about 15 x 8 feet. Dry shade with admittedly some hot afternoon sun. Last year, when it was so dry, it just got decimated, despite my best attempts to keep it watered, and this year most of the rest of it died off. I decided, after replanting spots of it last fall and this spring, to let it go - at least in this spot.

So consider your requirements for your particular bed more than pictures you like. Hopefully you will find something that fits both categories! What kind of conditions do you have?

Dee

That viola is very nice! I have a gentle slope that is shaded with a very tall holly. I'm embarrased to say that I'm unsure about just how dry or wet this spot is. I'm new to gardening so everything is a mystery. The nurseries in the area say we have soil that is on the clay side so I've been ammending the soil. I will have a hose just a couple feet away for watering.

Wait a few days to a week after a rain and take a shovel or trowel to the center of your bed. Look to see how far down the soil is at least slightly moist. Right now (before the big storm perdicted for ths afternoon but after last night's rain) the soil in my dry beds is pretty dusty dry below about three inches. My medium beds are just barely moist down to about 6-7 inches and I don't have any wet beds. (And I'm glad that we are getting a big rain today, otherwise I would be out there tomorrow morning watering at sun up.)

If your bed surrounds a mature holly, it is probably sucking up a lot of the moisture in the bed. The number of mature trees in my garden is why I have so many dry beds.

Along with the type of sun or shade, moisture is the most important factor to know about your beds.

kimka,
Your instructions are a god send! Thank you. I'm going outside now to do some investigating. Thank you again for all your help.

Omphalodes verna is a rather aggressive, but easily controlled groundcover which flourishes in the same conditions as hellebore. It will easily form a carpet of small green leaves. It has a wonderful blue flower in early spring. The flowers do not persist for a long period, but the leaves look good all season.
Hellebores manage to self-seed through it.
Some of the small ferns or hosta are also pretty with hellebore.

kimka - my beds seem to be slightly moist 6" down with compacted clay in spots where I haven't ammended a hole. The area next to the mature holly is less moist. I'll check in a few days, and then in a week, after this storm. Do you regularly check moisture 6" down?

ninamarie - omphalodes verna looks like a pretty plant. Wouldn't forget-me-nots have the same look?

I think all of the groundcovers I mentioned prefer to stay on the moist side, especially the Chrysogonum. If conditions are very dry, barrenwort (Epimedium) is probably my go-to.

Until I know my beds, I tend to check until I find moist soilor even if I have to go as deep as 12 inches. If you have to go deeper than 12 inches to find any moisture and you are not in the middle of a drought, forget growing anything until you replace most of what is passing for soil or settle for dessert plants. Another thing about checking now and a few days after a big rain (like the one hitting here in College Park right now and headed east) is that you'll also learn how quickly your beds drain.

By the way, I just posted a swap at my house for October 6 over on the Mid Atlantic Forum.

I have forget-me-nots around and under hellebores, They do quite well. This is at the outer edge of a bridal wreath shrub that is about 7 feet tall on the edge of a small stream. It's not wet because the stream bank is high above the stream.

I'm glad to hear about the hellebore/forget-me-not combo. Thanks for your post.

If you have H.orientalis, it is unlikely that groundcover beneath it is going to be an issue since mine make dense evergreen mounds of rather good foliage which persist all year,ting cut back completly (and briefly) as soon as the new blooms appear. For a very short time, just the stalks and flowers are visible then the new growth roars in and it is totally dark under the hellebores again. Same with many ferns -the leaves tend to recurve back to the soil level.You could add height though, maybe growing something much lighter through the hellebores (thalictrum, grasses, one of the taller anemones) to hover above.