Pruning Hellebore for Thriving Plants + Gorgeous Blooms

Well, hey friends, welcome back. It's been an insane day. I have two sicky chickies who are down with the crud, so I'm only popping out for like 10 minutes of garden therapy, and sometimes that is literally all you need. But I want to pop you down here to my hellebore patch and I want to walk you through kind of like some hellebore basics, what I'm doing with them this time of year, and the mistakes I have made. Okay, so first and foremost, if you don't know hellebore, welcome to hellebore land. They're lovely. I use them in all sorts of conditions. I love them in a container. I love them in a garden bed. And for us here in Seattle, so think like zone 7, 8, these are four seasons of interest. So they're going to be evergreen. They're going to have a bloom in the winter. And if you time it right and you choose like a wide variety of them, I could have a hellebore patch blooming from like December through March, April. I mean, that is insane longevity. So essentially I want to walk you through just some like nuts and bolts things to think about when you are investing in hellebore. First and foremost, they're expensive. They are expensive. And it's one of those things where you just get what you pay for. Now, when you're getting into hellebore territory, there's a whole bunch of series. In fact, gosh, Little Prince down in Oregon, they had a huge hellebore rollout a couple of years ago with a lot of new introductions. You guys also might be familiar with the Ice and Roses series. That's another one that's really fantastic. I actually prefer to use those in containers because they are more upright and their faces are upward. But here I just have a nice little selection of some rescues. I will tell you though, I have two favorite children in here and one that's just like, she's just okay. But I did make some mistakes. So I'm going to walk you through it. First and foremost, I want you to understand the hellebore. Hellebore are very tolerant. You can grow them in a variety of conditions. In terms of soil, the only soil they're really not going to dig on is something that's waterlogged or too much heavy clay. That's not their jam. If you still love these and that is your site condition, I just want you to plant them a little bit high. Here down in my cut flower garden, we have insanely sandy soil and so I've never had to worry about this. They're also pretty drought tolerant in my region. You water them to get them established and they have just like, they're just bulletproof once they're up and running. Now in terms of care, this is a great item if you are a low maintenance gardener. I touch these one time every year and that's it. In terms of disease, they're actually very disease resistant. Usually the only thing I will come up against here is some hellebore aphid. Hellebore aphid is interesting. It usually is very like, white and sappy and I hit it with some insecticidal soaps. There's about a million different varieties out there but that's typically the only pest that I encounter when I'm growing hellebore. Now I mentioned that I had made a mistake and I will tell you what that mistake is. I've planted them down here and you cannot see me but up there is my house. Well where am I in the middle of winter? I'm in my house and like a dum-dum, I planted them where you can see zero hellebore in the winter time. So these will stay here for now. I am going to be working on a garden bed closer to my house and these will for sure be transplanted to that new location once I have it prepped. But this is just kind of, they weren't going to go in the compost and so I saved them. So hellebore, each year is going to send out new leaves and new beautiful florals. But what happens is over the life, over the kind of year of this hellebore growing, it sends out this beautiful stalk which you can see happening right here. It's like so gorgeous. And then at the very end after it blooms and blooms and all summer, about this time of year before the new growth comes out, all of last year's growth just goes and it like falls down flat. And I love it when a plant sends you a signal like this because it's like, okay, we're done. Please remove us. And it's just like, it's like gardening for dummies. So essentially when you are pruning your hellebore, it is so easy. Every part of this plant tells you when it is ready to adios. So essentially you can see I've got my leaves that have fallen over right here and all you do, and by the way, I have all these leaves here because I'm just using these as winter protection. So after I'm done pruning, I will still bring some of these leaves back around the crown because I mean, we got down to like 20 something last night. So it's not exactly a heat wave here. Anyways, you just come in, you've got your old leaf here, you cut it above this new growth and that's it. Come in here, get another one, boom. And so I'm going to continue going all the way around. And when all this is said and done, what you're going to see is just the blooms for next year emerging from the ground. It is like, this is one of those projects where it but you know, like most things in the garden, hellebore is totally poisonous and the sap can cause irritation. So always make sure that you are wearing gloves when you go in to prune back your hellebore because no one wants skin irritation after pruning a hellebore. So just something to bear in mind. Also, the other thing is you actually do not need to divide hellebore. It's more of a, do you want to type of situation? By the way, for reference, I have two totally different varieties of hellebore here. This one on my right is a very classic Lenten Rose hellebore. Check out this leaf. It's more petite, less serration to the edge. It has a tidier habit and is a bit more of a deep green. On my left here, check that out. This is the leaf of one of my more heirloom varieties of hellebore. Now this is actually a beautiful double hellebore, meaning it has multiple rows of petals that go around. It has a much larger leaf, fewer leaves, and a very heavy serration. Now this one is actually my preferred child. So these are all of the clippings from my more traditional Lenten Rose hellebore. It's a bit more hybridized. This is what you're more commonly going to see. It's like a creamy white versus this. There's only four leaves here, but holy cannoli, look at the size of them. And this was from my more heirloom variety. I don't even know which one this is, but it is double, it is pink, and it makes me incredibly happy. Last but not least, hellebore is one of those awesome plants that it doesn't need to be divided. However, you can divide this. Now this clump, I actually will probably divide when I transplant it in the fall. I'm going to wait until October in my Zone 7, Zone 8 garden. You really want to wait until the temps are cooling for a more successful transplant. When I transplant it, what I'm looking for is, do you see this little space between my new growth points here, or likewise between this one and this clump here? In fact, let me just take this extra little bit of stem out so you can see it more clearly. This might be where I divide as well. And essentially, when you dig this out, I want you to give it a good spray off with water, especially at the crown, and you're really going to see which pathway is going to be the easiest for you to divide. Also, depending on your hellebore variety, you may be able to wiggle this a little bit and start naturally breaking off clumps. All right, so hellebore, moral of the story, four seasons of interest. Don't sleep on it. I love the heirloom varieties, but be careful. Hellebore are a slippery slope, and there are some gorgeous ones out there. Oh, but also don't do what I did. Plant it somewhere where you can see it, like a ding-a-ling. I didn't do that, but it's not a big deal. You guys get to watch me transplant these in the fall. Okay, I will see you in the next one. If you are in polar icy conditions, I hope you are staying warm and that you've got wonderful people around you keeping you company, and I hope seeing my little hellebore on approach has brought you a tiny bit of spring joy. Okay, say hello to your garden for me. Bye.