Do hellebores need a defense? I wouldn’t have thought so a decade ago, but three years ago I had to defend their cultivation to a master gardener who officially advised against growing them because they were toxic to animals. Others in the room nodded equally officiously as I felt my blood starting to boil.
Last year I defended growing them to a beginning gardener who said they were “too expensive.” And just last week I had to defend them to a good gardening friend who said she didn’t bother because “I don’t grow a winter garden.”
Add to that all the gardeners who don’t think of them at all or only think of the outfacing modern hybrids; and I think that yes, there’s room for a somewhat robust defense of these wonderful perennials – particularly for those only just getting started.
So they don’t miss out on this in February.
Or this in March.
Even a mild winter is a tough season. Rose colored glasses and a heavy coat are still standard issue for most gardeners in the last weeks of March. As winter reluctantly gives up its hold on soil, root and sanity, there is as much to ignore as to celebrate, and there’s never enough color – no matter how many bulbs were roughly planted by flashlight and drill auger in the closing moments of December.
“By March,” writes fellow Ranter Scott Beuerlein, “anything left in the garden for the purpose of providing ‘winter interest’ can only be identified by its dental records.” I hate to admit it, but it’s one of his best lines.
The relative nakedness of daffodils, crocus and snowdrops against a still apocalyptic tundra is certainly cheering; but when glasses are removed, it becomes apparent that what’s needed to tie them all together is a freshness and vigor that evergreen foundation shrubs can’t provide.
Solving problems one garden at a time
For decades, the presence of a few hellebores in a garden signified either competence or inheritance, particularly if they bloomed early in December or January as Christmas roses (usually the pure white H. niger or an H. niger cross).
Non-gardeners tend to think of the entire genus as Lenten roses, though it seems pointless to be officious over common names. I recently found out that the Hellebore Gold Collection marketing team has come up with the new ‘common’ name of snow rose to label some of their hybrids and further cloud our minds. [insert annoyed eye-roll] Is that to be capitalized do you think?
One of the “Snow Roses” in my garden – HGC® ‘Joker’
A wider angle
Hellebores were your gardening grandmother’s secret – a deer resistant (not deer-proof!), shade-tolerant, evergreen perennial with solid hardiness in USDA Zones 4-8 (and a little wiggle room on both ends for some species). Those in the know, knew. Others grew hosta and wept when the deer showed up. “The flower most capable of escaping the envious, sneaping frost is the hellebore.” writes Elizabeth Lawrence in her 1961 book, Gardens In Winter.
Even the most down-market of hellebore species with a penchant for promiscuity – H. orientalis – is a charming and versatile plant. Bitter winds might burn the clumps of leathery, palmate foliage; but vibrant green leaves will unfurl in late winter to replace them, while copious flowers open in colors from white-green to plum-charcoal, depending on the subspecies.
Years of interbreeding means that most garden-variety H. orientalis are now mostly H. x hybridus – but then so are some of the very dissimilar outfacing named cultivars, which illustrates the point that Cole Burrell and the late Judith Tyler made in their excellent book Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide: “To say that the taxonomy of Hellborus species is in flux is putting it mildly.”
I couldn’t tell you the parentage of those that fill in the gaps under my winter berries and continue to proliferate without shame, but I know that I love them.
A secret weapon in the early spring garden
Their foliage fills the tragedy of empty, ravaged soil in part sun or shade, and provides a stunning backdrop to bulbs and emerging perennials. Later, the hellebore’s shade tolerance and relative strength allows it to transition to groundcover as surrounding deciduous shrubs and trees put on leaves and spring turns into summer. Seedlings emerge in late winter as numerous as stars.
For those that have had a hillside of H. x hybridus for years, it becomes second nature to pull out drab seedlings (they can take three years to flower), and select for new and interesting colors and flower forms. But for the newbie with only a few plants, a hellebore seedling is a present to be unwrapped – a treasured and precious surprise. I’m still in the save-and-sift-seedlings stage of my gardening life.
Winter flowers, spring flowers, shade tolerant, deer resistant, great foliage, lotsa babies. That’s a lot to love.
A collection of H. x hybridus blossoms destined for a short lived floating display. For longer displays, harvest when the sepals are more ripened and thicker.
But there is a caveat, as there often is with most things that seem too good to be true. Though the flowers of many hellebore species age slowly with the strength and grace of Audrey Hepburn, they don’t share her posture, nodding towards the soil and forcing the gardener to bend over to fully view them. For this reason, gardeners often float the sturdy blossoms in bowls or trays to create exquisite winter tablescapes and establish instant horticultural credentials over dinner.
It’s the reason I forced my seatmate on a recent Perennial Plant Association bus tour to share our space with a four-foot shallow metal tray from Terrain. I had hellebores on the brain when I ponied up that cash. You can see a reel of putting together a tray of floating hellebores on my Instagram account @marianne.willburn
My Terrain tray fulfilling its destiny.
Enter the Cover Girls
Over the last decades, excellent breeding programs in the U.K, Europe and the United States have expanded the gardener’s palette with delicate, beautiful flowers on strong plants that tickle the collector’s spirit. Doubles, freckles, picotees, reverse picotees, suffusions of gold…the cultivars are astonishing and beautifully illustrate the sentiment of award-winning Chicago container designer Howard Nemeroff “They’re the plantsman’s plant – much like the musician’s musician.”
In 2010 the patent for a new kind of hellebore was filed by German breeder Josef Heuger – a plant that held its deep rose pink blooms outward on strong, dark stems. Its name eventually became ‘Pink Frost’ – a cross between H. niger and H. lividus. And it was a game changer – particularly in the florist world. I remember seeing it for the first time at the Philadelphia Flower Show paired florally – if not horticulturally – with fresh flounces of Carex buchananii ‘Red Rooster’
Many others followed, the HGC collection was created, florists swooned; and then several years later in 2014 a patent was filed by Rodney Davey and Lynda Windsor for a plant that would become ‘Penny’s Pink’ – the flagship plant of the FrostKiss® series. The venation in ‘Penny’s Pink’ was distinct (though curiously absent from the patent application) – a marbled white with suffusions of pink.
FrostKiss® cultivars have worked that angle since, and it’s a gorgeous angle to work.
Noted hellebore expert and author, C. Colston Burrell holding up a Frost Kiss® ‘Glenda’s Gloss’ after schooling me on species and breeding programs in between talks at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show recently. Serendipitously we bumped into each other next to Christianson’s Nursery and Greenhouse’s beautiful booth – and the hellebores provided a perfect show and tell experience.
Why would you NOT want to grow them?
If you’re in the right zone and have the right spot (A dappled shade position in moisture retentive, well drained soil is ideal, but many of the newer cultivars can take a lot more sun), it’s hard for me to understand why you wouldn’t grow them, but I’ll hit the reasons given by detractors.
“They’re too expensive”
Do you have to grow the expensive hybrids to grow hellebores? Of course not. Thanks to the promiscuity of the afore mentioned H. x hybridus (H. orientalis) hellebores and the dissected leaf H. foetidus seedlings, I have a hillside of wonderful no named cultivars, which I just might start naming for the heck of it.
These started out as free seedlings from friends, but over time I’ve collected a few more expensive modern named cultivars that are vegetatively propagated, most through tissue culture. ‘HGC Joel’, ‘Penny’s Pink’, ‘Pink Frost’, ‘Ice Breaker Max’, ‘Cinnamon Snow’, ‘Joker’, Dorothy’s Dawn’, ‘Glenda’s Gloss’, and ‘Molly’s White’ are all found in my garden. But so are many of the gorgeous downfacing seedling strains from Pine Knot Farms. (Who, as an aside, are in the middle of their famous Hellebore Festival for the next two weekends.)
If you care what color/form is coming into your garden, it’s important to always buy a plant with at least one bloom as seedlings are incredibly variable. If you don’t care, you’re liable to score some amazing tiny plants with great potential – and some free plants that will still delight you.
A once little ‘Gold Strain’ seedling from Pine Knot Farms turned out not be so gold, but absolutely beautiful – and the plant itself is a stunner.
And it can also be about the foliage – this little H. foetidus seedling from the ‘Gold Bullion’ strain has been this color right outside my kitchen window all winter.
“I don’t have a winter garden.”
Then you need to think of them as a spring plant. Because hellebore foliage and aging blossoms are going to set off all those “spring is here” bulbs you planted, and make them look like they’re not naked and alone in the still ratty landscape. Later the hellebores will blend beautifully into the background. See above.
Hellebores provide a backdrop for emerging bulbs in the early spring garden.
Later, the foliage provides a foil to the simplicity and beauty of pure white Thalia daffodils.
“They’re toxic.”
I can’t even.
Actually, yes I can. I’ll just offer this mini-list of criminal offenders, once revered, now feared: Foxgloves, rhododendron, yew, Easter lilies, lily-of-the-valley, tansy, lantana, mountain laurel, rhubarb, DAFFO-FREAKING-DILLS.
Sorry, I just get so tired of this. So. Tired.
Poisonings can happen certainly. But then so do car accidents. I still drive my car and I still grow everything on the above list and a few more. Be responsible. Be thoughtful. But don’t let fear run (and ruin) your life.
I love this plant. It is a bridge between seasons. As I get older I love it even more and look forward to the hellebore season with great joy. They’ll be decorating my house and garden for the next five to six weeks and I wouldn’t be without them. Don’t let another year go by in your garden without cultivating this kind of joy.
The defense rests. – MW
Seriously, why wouldn’t you want this?
This essay is possibly your best garden rant to date. Agree with your defense for all reasons given. Hellebores are a great investment. My first and rather expensive Hellebore purchase in 1998 provided hundreds of offspring for use throughout my property and substantial revenue for community service projects supported by my garden club’s annual plant auction.
Floating Hellebore blossoms in an antique cut-glass crystal bowl is our standard Easter dinner centerpiece. They are beautiful.
Here, in deer-ravaged western PA many gardeners seek out “toxic” plants for our gardens. Otherwise, the garden becomes a continuous “Bambi Buffet”. My only complaint is that my husband refers to them as “The Haliburtons” and now that name is stuck in my head.
Thank you April. I hadn’t thought about the additional point you make about hellebores as currency — but it’s a great one. Digging your seedlings and selling them relatively cheaply for the benefit of your garden club (or swapping them at plant swaps) is a great way to use them. It goes without saying that patented cultivars can’t be sold that way – but you’d have to divide them in the first place as most are sterile. I smiled reading ‘The Haliburtons’ — it’s something my husband would say too. – MW
I love this plant and look forward to their pretty little flowers in the winter. I’ve given away “babies” to friends and they are loved! I’ve bought a few cultivars and wish they propagated.(I may be showing my ignorance.) great article. Thanks.
I have many times acted against official advice and divided clumps just after flowers went over – and had very good results. This is very much against advice for the newer hybrids especially, but I’ve cut a large clump of H. x ericsmithii into quarters, immediately replanted and had three of the four live and thrive. They sulk and rarely bloom the next year, but if you keep them moist and use due diligence to prevent fungal diseases, you can increase your favorites that way. Sharp, clean knife, immediate replanting so roots don’t dry out, extra care with the watering can. I have not divided H. foetidus (a stemmed – or caulescent – species), just dug seedlings. My gut says that wouldn’t work well. Burrell & Tyler’s book goes into detail about dividing, but shamefully on Timber’s part, it is no longer in print. Search out a used copy or buy as a Kindle. It is pre- florists’ hybrids, but it is a GREAT resource. – MW
What a great article! I’ve just spent the weekend at Pine Knot volunteering with sales and the plants are glorious this year. Every year it seems there are more first time gardeners coming to shop. It’s a pleasure to introduce them to this wonderful winter charmer.
I am so glad they are so busy – and that there are so many first timers. Excellent. Hope very much to get down – but can’t do it until the very last day – March 11th. Hopefully there are a few crumbs left. I’m not holding out much hope. 🙂 – MW
Thanks for this wonderfully well-written article and for the points it makes aside from promoting hellebores, of which I grow hundreds (not all in the garden–they’ve spread to the adjoining woods). I too am getting fed up with the Garden Nannies who self-righteously tell us what to grow and what not to grow, often based on erroneous or inconclusive data–as with the current campaign against Nandina. And that includes the native plant fanatics and the concern with “pollinators” (pollinators like pollen; if a plant produces pollen they will use it). I’m not a master gardener and don’t take advice from newbys who have attended a few seminars and now sport a certificate. Instead I rely on my 70 years of wide experience gardening in habitats from northern PA to FL to NM, and now in the wonderfully mild climate of central VA. So please keep up your rants!
Thanks Bill. Nandina is next on my list. Has been for awhile. 🙂 – MW
Fantastic article. I love them all. But especially H. foetidus the stinking hellebore. Talk about foliage! And you can admire the flowers without bending down. Not only appreciated in wintery climates… I’m in South Carolina, where we’ve seen nary a flake of snow this “winter” and people use lots and lots of evergreens in the landscape, but still here the foliage & floral flush of hellebores is a welcome pleasure! BUT I must point out that Nandina domestica is ridiculously invasive here in the South, bright red berries throughout our woods, along with clouds of Bradford pear escapees. Please try to be aware of regional invasiveness situations and perhaps include a disclaimer if you write about such plants. Thanks!
Hellebores are ESSENTIAL gardens plants. A must have. Never imagined any objections – what IS it with people????? My mother in law had them seeded in masses in her garden and we loved their blooming time. Here’s a British nursery showing what they can do: https://veddw.com/general/hellebores-this-time/
Well said. Xxxx
A trip to Ashwood Nurseries is one I would have loved to make with GMG – but I do have Pine Knot Farms somewhat close (not close by British standards of course – three hours 🙂 ) And yes. What IS it with people? In regards to the poisonous aspects of so many of our garden favorites, I’m just so tired of it, and it’s being fueled by media needing clicks, and fear of a litigious society. – MW
It’s a pain. I love three hours being near!
However, on a different note, I’ve been thinking about how wonderfully you add plants/flowers/decoration to your home. Have you done a post on that?
I, too, garden with deer and drought, so I grow many types of Hellebores, including x hybridus, foetidus, argutifolius, and ‘Pink Frost’. I have a love/hate relationship with ‘Pink Frost’, though. For the three months that it blooms, it is spectacular. But unlike my other Hellebores, ‘Pink Frost’ isn’t drought tolerant in my location. And the moment it gets stressed, it becomes an aphid magnet.
As for the downward-facing flowers of the species, I don’t find this to be a minus. The tops of the flowers are colorful too, and swath of Hellebore still provides a mass of color in the garden.
I agree Chris – the downward facing blooms are not a downside – there’s too many of them to be invisible and their backsides are nicer than mine. – MW
BIG Hellebore fan here and why I include them in my book “Groundcover Revolution” as a great, leaf-swallowing option that can grow well amongst the roots of even the greediest large-rooted trees. To those who don’t like them in their own gardens? Well, I’d be happy for them to dig them and drop them off at my back door.
I think of them as a groundcover too Kathy – the only thing to mess with that here is the occasional bout of Southern Blight mid-summer. Kills them to the soil, sometimes completely. – MW
I was given some hellebores when a friend was moving out-of-state. Over the years they’ve spread and self-seeded and I’ve given away a bunch. One of the few plants in my deer ravaged yard that survives not only the deer and rabbits, but being planted under a black walnut trees, in more sun than shade. I’ve coveted some of the newer hybrids, but I’m not willing to pay the prices they command.
I had no idea hellebores reseed easily. I planted 8 three years ago. Half are on the north side of a fence and half are on the north side of the house. All were nursery plants that were already blooming. I live in a dry climate, so all of my plants are on drip irrigation directly at the roots. Maybe the areas between the plants don’t have sufficient water to germinate seeds well?
I adopted a six month old puppy in December. After a lot of reading, I decided half my houseplants and the foxglove needed to go, but I left the hellebores. Yes, they are toxic, but apparently they taste so horrible no 45 pound dog would want to consume enough to be seriously ill.
I don’t plant daffs in with my shallots (marigolds, yes, but I’m in no danger of confusing them with an allium). Why would I plant hellebores in with the . . . I don’t know, offhand, of any vegetable they really resemble. I now have room to plant [almost] anything I want to spend time looking after, and you’ve inspired me to try hellebores. Deer are smart enough not to chew on poisonous things, aren’t they?
Just can’t get into raptures over them. Character flaw, I suppose. I got one over 30 years ago at a little nursery going out of business. Not even mentioned in the then current garden books. Found it in my old copy of Taylor’s garden guide.
It is your basic greeny white one. Has seeded a little. But it’s leaves are almost always ratty looking. Which doesn’t bother me a bit with the epimidiums, which I love. Go figure.
You’ve successfully convinced me to try hellebores again.
Wait! You mean Anne hasn’t already shamed you for not growing them? 😉 – MW
Although, now I think of it, I have a question about toxic plants in general: Pollinators like pollen; hellebore pollen is not toxic to pollinators or the plants would never reproduce, right?. But – if you have honeybees around, and they take hellebore nectar back to their hives, is the resulting honey poisonous?
There is a type of honey that comes from bees supping primarily on rhododendrons (also toxic), called mad honey, as it is hallucinogenic, but in normal situations, bees are browsers with an approximate 2 mile radius and unless their hives were sitting in the middle of four miles of hellebores, you’re going to have a lot of different nectars in that honey. Hellebores are very early, and much of that pollen and nectar will be used to feed brood and queen right now, so my guess is, it’s not something to worry about even if there is a toxic quality to the nectar. – MW
Super; thanks!
Here in unusially cold and rainy No. Ca. My local Home depot has a nice batch. We started carrying them 3 years ago. People thought they were a bit pricy, but I bit and and bought one. They do great here in my zone 9. In the summer they are indifferent about water, snails leave them alone What more can you wish for?
Hellebores are beautiful, but you CAN have too many. Apparently, they love my property and have spread over SEVERAL acres. They laugh at Round Up and are difficult to dig, once mature. (I Googled how to kill them, but there was not a single posting about that!) I have dug and mailed to anyone who asked, back in the Garden Web days, but I am too old for that much work any more. This is one species I wish I had never planted.
What a fascinating perspective Lynda – thanks for sharing. There are always two sides to every story, but I’ll stick with growing them. I’d rather have them take over the woods than the wicked and painful multiflora. Perhaps a local garden club has new gardeners that would like to try them and would be willing to dig them. I certainly would have. But if they go, what will fill the vacuum? – MW
Thank you for your eloquent and informative defense of hellebores. I never knew about them until I moved to the Pacific Northwest nearly 10 years. Now I can’t imagine my garden without them. I adore hellebores.
Garden columnist Marianne Binetti at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle this year said that Washington’s governor passed a law mandating that every home must grow a hellebore because they’re so great in the PNW. I think she was exaggerating, but it made me smile. – MW
I adore Hellebores, but sadly so do Texas rabbits. I have to cage them with wire hanging basket forms, which makes them look like prisoners. I love them best planted in tall urns mixed with trailing ivies and violas-pure elegance!
They are expensive and I don’t want them spreading to natural areas. But, they are juglone tolerant and I love them!
This is why I love Garden Rant! Seriously opinionated, slightly obsessive. Describes gardeners to a T.
Marianne, would you give us a breakdown on the photo captioned “A wider angle”? That’s a beautiful combo.
Thanks! That’s HGC Joker and Pink Frost with Lamiastrum galeobdolon (yellow archangel) and Corydalis solida. Both the Lamiastrum and the Corydalis are not something to let lose lightly in the garden, but here they combined well with yellow flowers on the Lamiastrum and purple on the Corydalis after the hellebores took on the first shift of color and faded. I have since moved the Jokers and the Pink Frosts to areas with less competition and am moving simple H. orientalis type hybrids here. It’s been my experience that the HGCs aren’t as vigorous. Esp. against thugs. – MW
Marianne, I love hellebores, but they are seeding fools. That’s not all bad. A 3- or 4-year-old plant can easily spawn a hundred little seedlings that come up at the same time as blooms arrive. The seedlings can be replanted now, even at the tiniest cotyledon stage, before they develop their first true leaves. The sooner the better. In a few years, it’s possible have a thousand hellebores. There comes a time when a gardener may say enough’s enough. Or maybe never reach that point. The blooms are magnificent, and the plants are tough, but I am attempting prudence. My hoe gets its first workout of the year on hellebore seedlings. I’ve got enough.
Thank you for another wonderful post.
I didn’t imagine they needed defending. We have had an old fashioned pink, white and 1 purple seedling for about 20 years. Only the 1 seedling in all that time.
Plenty of color from the backside of the nodding flowers. Just like tulips?
Recently mortgaged the house and bought into the Wedding Party series and some of the Winter Jewels series. Also the earlier blooming Jacob and Snowbells.
Looking forward to those eventual blooms.
About the invasive part. Didn’t know they would take over the woods. We have only had the 1 seedling in 20 years.
Recently discovered my “marsh marigold” is really lesser celandine. Growing it in a bunch of pots in the back yard for a decade. It just showed up 1 year. Pops up, lush, beautiful blooms, dies back almost instantly. Perfect plant.
It is blooming now and is a wonderful harbinger of the end of ‘winter’ (zone 8 winter).
FWIW, the crocus are almost finished here. Daffs in full sun are beautiful already. The 3 older hellebores are in full bloom and beautiful.
Was informed the lesser celandine will overun the recently planted trilliums and dog tooth violets if I let the lesser celandine make it into the front yard garden. I can see how that would happen. We have had a few trilliums in the front yard garden for over a decade. But they don’t really spread. The mature dogwoods they are planted under keep the soil fairly dry.
Our nandinas need to go.
Love that plant! First plant I fell in love with when we moved here from Hawaii.
But seedlings everywhere. Easily a few hundred seedlings in 20 years. Nothing stops them except uprooting them.
It really is becoming enough of a problem that even I can’t overlook it.
Locally, nandina will be the next English ivy, Chinese privet, Japanese honey suckle nightmare.
Walking through a local trail there are the taller trees and those 3. Not much else.
I always wonder how many non gardening people think of English ivy, Chinese privet and Japanese honey suckle as ‘nature’.
I refuse to give up my well behaved non-native plants. I refuse to believe a beautiful garden needs to be replaced with just a weedy meadow.
In our yard we already have dragonflies, fireflies, multiple bee species, lots of birds, possums, raccoons and rabbits (maybe fewer of those please).
Lack of insecticides in our yard is one of the main reasons i give credit for all of the wildlife. BT in the water features and a few saucers is the only thing we use regularly.
I believe we can plant both natives and non natives and still be responsible stewards.
Wow Matt – so many thoughts – thanks for sharing. I have been paying attention to the Wedding Party series too and will probably try one or two. Mother of the Bride and Father of the Bride are stunning. – MW
My “common” hellebores have been spreading on a hillside for years and I’m amazed at the different color combinations that have appeared. My crystal bowl of blossoms was mistaken for a dessert tray at a birthday party. A bed of hostas and other deer treats can be protected by a swath of these beauties. However “Hellebore Hill” becomes “Hillabore Hell” when it’s time to clip ratty foliage (it was ALL ratty after our 2 day brutal arctic blast this December which made it much easier to just clip it all). And then there are the literally millions of tiny seedlings which pull easily after a rain. Once they develop a few true leaves they are also hellish to dig but I’ve set limits on how far into the forest they can go ~ not far, they are beautiful when crowded and leave no space for the other invasives. My advice to first timers is to drop the cash on the hybrids and save their aging backs.
With regards to poisonous plants – I have many that you listed in my yard – I have always assumed that the alert is for gardeners that also have pets. I’m of the thinking that my pups aren’t going to eat enough to make them ill ….. and then it happened ….. my young pup became violently ill one day after being outside with me for a few hours – we almost lost her …. what a horrifying ride to the emergency vet. I searched my yard for what she must have gotten into – and then I remembered that I saw her drinking out of my small water feature…. so I googled all the plants in it and sure enough – water hyacinths!! I had no idea!! She had eaten just a piece of one of the plants! So for me, it is nice to know what plants could harm my pups and then I can decide if I think they pose a risk based on my pups behavior. Love my hellebores – pups have never paid any interest to them! So yes to the “poisonous” hellebores – but a big no to water hyacinths!!
Puppies are notorious for getting into what they shouldn’t eh? Thanks for sharing your perspective and glad your puppy is okay. – MW
I meant to also ask; In the picture you have captioned with “A wider angle” what is the name of the groundcover with the dark greens leaves with white on them?
I’ve written it out in a reply to a comment above. – MW
And here I am in the back of the room, standing up and clapping loudly. I love my hellebores! All of them… those that attempt to bloom at Christmas (and now look great!) and those that bloom for Lent (and now also look great!) I agree with others… great rant!
I’m fairly recent to the Rant and enjoy it, although like The New Yorker, it’s hard to keep up. I particularly enjoy a focus on one featured plant like this. Very informative still for a long-time gardener like me. I’m surrounded by perennials most of the time, as a professional salesperson, and while I do get a nice discount it’s very hard for me to buy the new ( or not) Hellebores. I use birthday/Xmas gift cards or trade with my fellow plant geeks. Kudos for a nice report.
Welcome Mary! Glad to have you as a reader. We’re an eclectic bunch and there’s sure to be something to interest you every week between us. I enjoy these deep dives too – but there’s rarely time to write them! My hellebores inspired me this year. – MW
Amen. I’m in Austin in 8b, 9a whenI’m pushing the envelope. Gardeners here generally don’t grow them and they are not available in local nurseries. They, along with daffodils and quince, are my first spring bloomers. They inspire me for the coming season. My verdict for hellebores is thumb’s up!
I look out my windows in January and say thank you God for Hellibores. I start new ines from seedlings i find ubder the leaves and do not care what color they are. I have replaced all of my hostas with them because the deer do not like them and rhey bloom just when i need them most.
An absolutely spot on rant. Thank you! Things are getting CRAZY out there!
Thanks for giving me this information. It is beneficial to me, so keep doing well.
I live in deer country and LOVE feeding them. Have about 15 every evening. I’m transitioning from a beautiful garden with everything deer love—to an easier wildlife garden. Less work to protect. Hellebores are my #1favorite. I elevated the beds for better show and treat them as shrubs—planting about 2 1/2 feet away like a checkerboard pattern. At 72—-they are a lot of work—way too many babies—and I feel like I need to save them all. I’m a master gardener and invite the other MGs to dig them for our plant sale. Made a LOT of money on them. Most are Pine Knot strain. Evergreen—deer resistant—bloom from Jan-May—Zone 7b—what is not to love!!