Nice growing.

Most of my hellebores are seedlings, they usually revert to that purply rose but occasionally one comes up white or pink. But they're all welcome-they look good most of the winter and if I forget to cut off the foliage the new growth soon covers it. The flowers are still going but hanging low-pretty good considering they started in Jan.

I have a ruffly double white one called "Cotton Candy" that started blooming in February and just opened a new bud this week. Amazing, yeah.

Been adding hybrid hellebores since 2013 and now consider them indispensable earlier spring perennials, along with the primulas, lungworts and brunnera.

I can see an argument in favour of upwardly facing, versus nodding, flowers.

Still deciding on how to approach removing old leaves.

May 4, 2017.

Pink Frost

Berry Swirl

Mine are still blooming & have unopened buds here in southern New England (CT). Can't recall the names of mine just now but am sure I kept track in my garden notes. I wouldn't be without them.

I used to not really get them either, but a robust plant can really "wow" in the garden. I have them everywhere now - mostly seedlings and a few of the modern upright facing ones.

I plunked them in less than optimal locations ie quite shady.

Actually, I think for hellebores, that is optimal.

I'm with you - almost down to the same timing. I bought several a few years ago when it was the in trend to buy. Couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Then this year they all took off. Actually, in my area anybody who has hellebores - they all look like they are in steroids. This winter must have provided ideal conditions. Or maybe we all bought at the same time from the same hype and everything is just peaking at the same time. Mine are still going full force.

few of the modern upright facing ones.

Could you post a picture or two posierosie?

(What are some of the varieties that are upward facing?)

Great info 'gg'. Thank you.

So pretty! I bought two this year and so far they're doing well. Hope mine turn out as nice as yours!

I'd suggest that hellebore cultivars are a prime example of "you get what you pay for with perennials" (viz. in terms of hardiness, tolerance as to growing conditions, being largely not disease-prone, longevity, etc.). On the other hand, it's probably better to claim that you're more likely to get what you pay for with hellebore cultivars than with those of some other higher-end perennials.

That cinnamon snow is a looker.

Huge fan here as well. I don't know if I would call it an "obsession," but I was definitely in on that hype a couple of years ago and started a small collection. It's hard to achieve the massed look I was going for with so many different cultivars, but I do enjoy and appreciate the variety. My favorite might be Maestro which starts blooming in December and manages to hold onto some "flowers" (actually sepals) year round. Right now they are putting out fresh spring foliage along with most plants in my garden. Starting at the top and going clockwise, here is: Peppermint Ruffles, Pink Frost, Amethyst Gem, Painted Doubles (small and underwhelming so far), one that was marked as Amber Gem but clearly isn't, Maestro, and non-visible Golden Lotus that I just moved out of the shadow of Peppermint R.

Here is Maestro from another angle. What a charmer.

Yes, hellebores are "bang on trend", They always seem to sell like hotcakes when people see them pumped up and ready to go at the nurseries. My experience with them was that it took another few years in the ground after that to get back to that pumped up steroid state LOL

I love them. I had seen people talk about them but never saw them in my local nursery. Two yrs go Santa Rosa had their end of season sale and they were 4.00 so I brought one now I am hooked. It started blooming in Feb and it is still blooming.

Those are stunning Rouge.

I've had two hellebores in the ground for two years and no blooms yet. They were on super clearance from a nursery going out of business (6" pots) and looked a little beat up. They haven't grown much at all and they are near the overflow outlet of my rain barrel. Do they dislike being wet? Its not constant but it does stay wet there longer than other parts of the garden.

"Do they dislike being wet? "

Yes.......like most plants, they want good drainage and dislike soggy soil. And are very drought tolerant once properly established.

'greenhearted', you are too kind. I like mine because for the first two years after transplanting they did nothing...just green leaves but this year they have transformed from non descript to important members of our garden. I love it when that happens. Last year I had a bee in my bonnet for all things "monkshood" this season I love hellebores. (Just this morning I made an impulse buy of "Moonbeam"!)

Thanks gardengal. Some plants don't mind a little extra moisture and some resent it. I wasn't sure where hellebores were on this spectrum.

Rouge, perhaps there is hope for mine yet since yours didn't bloom until the third year after transplanting. I am like that too with plants, and in fact most aspects of my life. If I'm into it, I'm really into it. The flavor of 2017 for me is plants with medicinal/edible qualities.

As for removing the old leaves, I was in a quandary, too, until I read that English gardeners (and we know they do it right) remove the old, winter-ravaged leaves when the flower spikes are emerging, putting the focus on those emerging flowers.

This is the way I have been doing it for years, now - a nice garden activity for a mild day in February - and the plants are doing very well.

Although I've read they resent being moved, I accepted a "rescue" plant that was dug mid-summer some years ago, planted and irrigated well, and it carried on as if nothing had happened. Sometimes you get lucky.

My experience also ie two of mine were 'donations' from my sister. She brought them over in shopping bags as I recall and I didn't do anything with them for a couple of weeks as I wasn't overly thrilled on getting them and yet they did just fine.

Removing old leaves when the flower buds are emerging is very much hybrid specific - this is typically only done with the xhybridus types as they produce flower bearing stems separate from leafy stems (acaulescent). The newer, more complex hybrids like Cinnamon Snow, Maestro, Ivory Prince, etc produce flowers and leaves on the same stems (caulescent) and these only get removed after the plant is done flowering, if even necessary at that time. Wholesale removal will result in the plant not flowering.

I can testify to the fact that Ivory Prince has fewer blooms if leaves are trimmed before bloom. With little snow many of the leaves on my plant turned brown and crisp late winter/early spring. Still had blooms but far fewer than previous years.

Hmm, so I may want to avoid the newer hybrids? Removing older hellebore leaves so the flowers can be seen is the one garden task the deer get right.

Although I've read they resent being moved

So is it not recommended to divide these plants?

Another garden myth/old wives tale :-) They can be divided and moved rather easily. I'd wait until after the bloom cycle.

"Removing older hellebore leaves so the flowers can be seen is the one garden task the deer get right."

Really?? Hellebores have a universal reputation for being deer resistant!! I live in a deer country club and they have never looked twice at any any hellebores, although they do sample just about everything else.

"Hellebores have a universal reputation for being deer resistant!!"

My deer are functional illiterates. They did not read that book. This winter they ate the all the leaves off my Hellebore. I have chased them away from my daffodils in the Spring, Another plant that is said that nothing eat.

Yes, I really like them too and only got introduced to them a few years ago. They seem underutilized and sold. Think because they take a few years to take off. I guess my deer read as they have not touched them. They are also really good for arid and shade.., not an easy combination. LOL!

UPDATE:

Two months later. I know these same flowers are not as vibrant as they were 2 months earlier ;) but still I am impressed that they are there at all!

I'm new to hellebores this year & other than the flowers, I was pleasantly surprised by the staying power & freshness of the greenery, which I wasn't expecting.

My hellebores have been planted for the past 3-5 years at the northeast corner of my house. They've done well in their part-sun eastern side of my garden. They've thrived and, can I say, flourished, where they're growing. This year was one of their best so far--they produced abundant blooms (sorry, no photos), Each year in early February I begin to anticipate them putting on a show. The foliage (now it's August) is just as lovely as it was in March. Can't ask for more.

I like to add deer, rabbits, groundhogs do not like them. My shade gatden was attacked and they are the only thing with leaves. 100s of hostas gone, some ferns gone the daylilies that I grow in the shade gone. But not this plant.

Just a little shout out for the species (especially for you foliage lovers). Our native h.foetidus (although it really doesn't whiff) has the most elegant deep green, almost black foliage...which looks utterly gorgeous with snowdrops and red stemmed dogwoods...and when the small, lime green, crimson edged flowers arrive (look out for 'wester flisk'), it is stellar. The huge leaved h.corsicanus (and smaller h.lividus) have been used extensively in the new hybrids (particularly the ericsmithii types)...but the straight species are fabulous, with the foliage looking as good in August as it did in March. For the warmer areas, the balkan h.torquatus and h.atrorubens are smaller in flower and daintier altogether but have uniquely coloured forms which look exceptional with ferns and grasses. I generally avoid the iffy h.niger....although I am seeing some possible hybrids such as Potters Wheel having niger in the mix.

I confess to disliking the doubles, although the flowers do hold for weeks and weeks...and although I do try to buy when in flower (my sweetheart drove 70 miles to collect a single yellow, unspotted single once), I have not really made any inroads into the named varietal craze as the variation in the basic h.orientalis has been sufficient to keep me entertained. To start a collection, I heartily recommend buying a packet of Ashwood or Ballard hybrids and sowing around September. Within 3 years, you will have a good basis for a collection (they are almost foolproof at germinating and growing on, being able to go into the ground the first autumn and left alone for another couple of years.

Campanula, thanks for the seed sowing suggestion! Funny- though I sow lots of seeds, I never thought of sowing hellebore seeds. Good to hear they are relatively new easy. I just found a good variety of seeds on plant-world-seeds.com, so am going to give it a go!

Aha - I also have Arthur's Black Buttercup seeds on order from them. An ideal time to order as the seeds will be fresh this year and will germinate and grow away easily. 'Prizewinners' is a good selection, irrc.

Very tempted by 'Gold Bullion' too.

I would offer that species hellebores are extremely uncommon in US gardens. Other than H. niger, most are not hardy to much of the country and where they are, H. feotidus and argutifolius (the Corsican hellebore) are the about the only species one can locate. Now and again perhaps a lividus. By far the most common hellebores sold and planted in this country are the xhybridus forms followed by some of the new niger cultivars. The newer interspecies hybrids are far less commonly sold or planted although they are making headway. However these are all sterile hybrids so must be grown from started plants, not seeds. And they are not exactly inexpensive, most being patented plants.

Recent to hellebores. Lots of interesting/useful information above.

Have been told by several informed naturalists that hellebores are becoming invasive in woodlands in the North American North-East.

Can't see anything about it on-line. Does anyone know anything about this?

Invasive or naturalized? There's a pretty significant difference between the two and I have a hard time visualizing hellebores out competing native plants. And while the xhybridus and foetidus will self seed pretty freely when happy, they generally just drop their seeds in the immediate vicinity.

Interesting, GG.

What I remember was "invading the edges of native woodland". I did ask for written references but got none. Will pursue when I see one of them again.