hellebore

I just bought a hellebore, pink frost. I woud like to know since it blooms very early in the spring, does the foliage last all summer or does it die off like a daffodil? Do I cut it back or just leave it? I don't know what to do to care for it?

Yes foliage lasts all summer (actually it is evergreen), and just leave it be. The only thing I do with mine is to trim off the occasional dead leaves and the spent flowers once the flower stems turn black. Hellebores has been one of the best maintenance free performers in my garden.

I do nothing at all to mine, and they still bloom nicely each year, although here they bloom in late winter. I'm not disagreeing with aspenhill. They probably would bloom even better if I took the time to remove spent blooms and such, but I don't have the time (and/or am lazy). Just wanted to add that they do incredibly well even when totally ignored. As aspenhill points out, they are "maintenance free performers".

And, yes, the foliage remains all summer. I can tell you from unfortunate experience that if you cut the foliage down to the ground after the plant is through blooming, you will not get blooms the following spring. I know this because last spring my landscaper 'weed whacked' all of mine to the ground. The plants did not return again until early this spring, and they did not bloom. I'm guessing they did not have the energy to bloom. I feel fortunate that they survived. Definitely leave the healthy leaves intact to convert the sun's energy to energy needed by the plant.

ok great, Thank you so much!

Like Dream, I let Hellebores take care of themselves. They often reproduce on their own. Be on the lookout for seedlings near the original plant and move them to a desired location before they become too large. I often find new plants growing in a gravel bed 6 feet away from the nearest hellebore!

Thanks for that tip, Don. I'll have to start checking around mine. I had no idea they would self-sow that way.

If I only have one type of hellebore, will the seedlings look like the parent? I assume that with multiple varieties, they could cross pollinate and the seedlings could vary.

My guess is that in some cases you may get variety even from a single plant (unless they are self-sterile). I say this because bloom color seems to be highly variable in some varieties.

You can cut off all the foliage in the spring, before the blooms come out -- it'll look pretty tattered at that point and will detract from the blooms. Or don't bother! We've done both.

But from DreamofSpring says -- I wonder if I should be more cautious about cutting back the foliage?

What's the point of cutting off all of the leaves? As you indicate, it doesn't improve the appearance of the plant, and from my own experience, it adversely effects blooming. This leaves me wondering why you would want to do it at all, as there seems to be no benefit. Or am I missing something here?

(Note: In my case, it was the gardener's mistake in chopping the plants down after mistaking them for weeds. I've lost more plants to my gardener/landscaper than to disease and insects combined. Argh!)

I cut the leaves down because ( thought) I read that we should do that -- and my leaves were so ratty that they distracted from the blooms. But now I am wondering if that was a good idea!