Congrats mcgina! I don't expect blooms from mine this year, but it sure has been fun seeing sprouting green all winter. The seedlings I got in a trade have increased dramatically as well as the H.foetidus and Royal Heritage I bought, so I know patience will show me a host of heavenly hellebores!
Neal.
Helleborus - what is it doing?
Oh, its so good to find this thread! I had about nine Helleborus in my raised bed. The roofers came over the fence and trampled all but three. Some I have had for nearly five years and never seen them bloom. the plant I lost was broken off at the soil level. Will they come back if the root is still there?
...someone please tell yes.
Sylvia
Mine has several black and wilted branches of foliage right now. Some are still green. Is this normal?
i'm SO glad to see this thread getting active again!
kbaumle- yes, normal, some of the early new growth that appears in the fall doesn't have time to harden off and gets burned when frosts hit, i have lots of same and we had an early and heavy snow/ice cover that broke lots of stems - i just cut the damaged leaves off and wait for the good stuff this time of year i cut everything off the sale stock i have in pots
sedrick- if the crown of the plant is intact they should be ok, scratch around gently and see if there are big growth tips under surface of soil
mcgina, I'd love to see pics of your H.foetidus. I bet that spring green is so welcome now. Neal.
mcgina, will it grow new growth where it got frostbitten, or will I have to wait until next fall for it to do that?
Thanks Mcgina ...I will do that
Sylvia
kbaumle - i can't remember, is it a young small plant? established plants will continue to get new leaf growth all winter/spring, if yours is old enuf to bloom most of the leaf growth comes after the bloom
neal- i'll try and get some pics this weekend
mcg
Yes, it's pretty small. Just planted last summer. That's it in the picture in the first post in this thread.
I went and checked mine today as I happened to have been home for lunch....I've got sprouts pushing up!!!!
I have several old ones that are usually blooming by now, but this year, I have only found one bloom stalk forming - I think it is because of the mild winter we have had so far. I do have a lot of new growth tho.
Jan16, 2006.
Spring Fever!!!
We had so much rain that my backyard turned into a pond!!! Then that same night the temperature dropped and everything froze. That was all followed up by 2" of snow! I am afraid to go look...
I really don't expect mine to bloom this year. I just planted it in May.
jamesCO- that picture an eloquent answer to "why grow hellebores"!!!!
i'll try (again) to post some pictures this weekend, there is SO much happening, most exciting is that the seeds harvested last year have germinated - it is easy if the seeds are fresh
mcgina
HEY ITS ME AGAIN! I want to know if its possible I can grow my Helleborus in a pot for a while. The area they are in, the soil has become so compacted. I need to till it and amend it something terrible. Anyone with any ideas, i would certainly appreciate it.
Sylvia
Only one from me- In pots, don't dare let a Hellebore dry out. It may appear to recover, but it will suffer from long-held root damage.
Ed. to add that the plant will be set back an entire year!
This message was edited Jan 20, 2006 1:08 PM
Thanks James, that could be why they have never bloomed,
Sylvia
That's why I have one budding and four sulking!
my 2 cents worth - i grow the plants i sell in pots, some have been in pots for 3 years and they bloom well - not as much as plants in the ground, but 3-6 bloom stocks
i use big pots, never smaller than 2.5 gallon, bigger if i know i want to keep it potted for acouple of years. I put a couple of inches of pine bark in the bottom of the pot, then use a soil mix that is half compost and half bark. Good drainage is crucial and it's important to have a deep enough pot that the roots don"t "check" -
that is form a dense mat at the bottom of the pot
sedrick - do you have to dig yours out? sometimes that causes a setback but i've done it this time of year with success, be sure the pot drains well and water daily for a while
attached image shot today
Thank you so much Mcgina, you just made my day.
...and yes I do have to dig them. I intend to dig out the ones that are broken off at the soil lines too. Its raining today (thank God) they should be easier to dig them out and get all the roots hopefully.
Sylvia
Finally got some nice weather and was around in daylight to take a pic of my plants - we've just had alot of rain - so the beds are a mess and the plants look horrible!! Since they are sprouting, I have not doubt that they will be fine.
Here's a closeup
Hi,
I am a newbie to hellebores and my first purchase last spring was Helleborus x sun marble. I believe this is a relatively new intro that I purchased solely for the leaf color ( I am a color driven gardener). This plant which has a total of three leaves produced five flowers on 1/15 in my zone 7a garden. My largest challenge in the garden is wind which I know full well Hellebores do not like. November 15th I sprayed this plant with Wilt-Pruf with a 10-1 dilution. One month later we had two storms with wind gusts stronger than in most hurricanes and northeaster's that I have experienced in the last decade. Now one of my three leaves (two large one young) has turned black and is dying off. My question to you wonderful people is two fold -Do you think the plant flowered at such a young age so heavily because it is no long for this world? Secondly it is likely I will have the opportunity to re-spray what is left of the plant with Wilt-Pruf is this something you would do? I have already contacted via e-mail the company and although they were very responsive to my questions they are really not willing to commit to it either way. Thanks Katy
runktrun - hmmmm, that is not a varaiety i know well, it is a niger/sterni cross and neither of those do well for me in zone 7 so i stick to the hybridus varieties and am not aware of wind being a problem with them so i've never sprayed
i'm confused re your timing - when did you plant it? do you know if it was a division or seed grown?
kbaumle et al - here is a before and after pic of one of my beds, you can see how dense and nasty the old growth is - and the wonders hiding underneath it. i think the extreme haircut allows all the plant's energy to go to new growth and the stems are much less leggy
after pic (next day) coming in separate post, i can't figure out how to attach two pics
WOW!
well obviously previous post is the after shot, here is before
mcgina,
Sorry for the confusion I bought and planted this hellebore in June of 2005 during a buying frenzy at Avant Gardens here in MA. I was told she purchased the plant from a grower in the Mid-Atlantic area. I do not know if it was started from seed or division. During the time in my garden (6 months) it has never shown any signs of growth and now I am surprised to see it flowering at such a young age. If Nikon sends me my x#*%# replacement camera this week I will post a photo would that help? Thanks again Katy
I had two last year, but I seem to have lost one. One is just starting new growth. It' s about an inch up out of the ground. I really wish it would do better, but maybe it is rootbound in between the larger roots of my fir tree.
Ivy1,
Is your hellebore x sun marble? OFT... Mystic is such a beautiful community. My DH and I were married on a sailing schooner "Mary B" out of New London in 1978. Katy
Wow, Runktrun! That's a fantastic way to get married! How cool!
We were lucky to get a house in Mystic. We bought ours 8 years ago right before housing prices went out of control. We are in the second to smallest house on our street. Now the only people who buy here are rich New Yorkers who come in for two weeks out of the year. It's getting to be like a ghost town. But don't get me started on the subject, because it irks me! It is still a beautiful place to live and we old timers(!) have a nice community here.
My Hellebore(s) are Royal Heritage strain. They were free last year because I bought so much from Wayside. I would have bought them anyway, if they hadn't given them to me!
Did I post this pic I found on this site? I don't think so- it is sooo pretty:
http://www.postofficefarmnursery.com.au/growing.htm
What a beautiful pic! I've never seen an image of so many hellebores in one planting. Thanks for sharing.
It made me want to copy it in my garden .... Don't tell.
psst....Ivy....I agree...shhh
Yeah, my attempts are coming out all two-dimensional... Incompatible Printer/Soil ?
Hi, I'm new to Hellebores and would like to know the best time to purchase them and plant, fall? (plants)
I have seen such pretty ones on here and have been looking at them for a long time, I'm not getting any younger, so I think I better go ahead and purchase lol
I just started a new shade garden (lasagna style, will be ready in fall) and I have a great spot right in front of the house (shade, dapled morning sun) where I can see them all the time too, any help would be appreciated.
I purchased some Lenten Rose Mix and forgot about them last year, so I'm trying to winter sow them (jug, north side) but don't expect them to come up because I read the seed need to be fresh, they seem like a chalange and I love that lol Gonna have to get me some fresh seed ;-)
Great info. on here and pictures!
Lea
Just checked my helleborus and while I have other things sprouting new growth that shouldn't be right now, the helleborus is doing nothing. :-(
We should all post photo's of our attempts at recreating the hellebore garden in the photo. Of course that might take a while......Katy
I have a curved retaining wall under a giant maple tree that I want to try it on top of. It would look pretty great in that area. I would have to amend like crazy, since the fill on the inside of the wall is gravel and sand. Good for drainage, but not moist enough to keep them going.
I bet that would look great Ivy! Send some before pics so we can see what it will look like after.