Hellebores

Hellebores are on the whole tough, undemanding plants. Providing invaluable late winter and early spring colour. As a bonus, most of them are evergreen, with very decorative leaves and are very long-lived plants. They always manage to lift the spirit in late winter when their flower spikes appear. The flowers have a wide colour range too. Ranging from pure white, pure greens, through pinks, plums, purples, midnight-purples to slaty blue-blacks. There are also spotted flowering forms and semi-double forms too. To enjoy your hellebore flowers to the full, remove some or all of the old leaves from the previous season (H. orientalis hybrids only), by which time they will be looking very battered and worn. A word of warning might be appropriate here - hellebores are very addictive!

Cultivation

Helleborus, also known as the 'Christmas rose' or 'Lenton rose', are tolerant of a wide range of soil types, providing that they are not very dry or waterlogged. They appreciate liberal amounts of humus when planting to retain moisture in sandy soils and to provide drainage in clay soils. Most hellebores prefer a neutral or alkaline soil. They like shade from the midday sun, but will fail if planted in too shady a site, flowering sparsely or not at all. Hellebores are tough and will withstand European and North American winters without any trouble, with the exception of Hellebore lividus and some forms of argutifolius which might succumb to any hard winter. At flowering time, it is best to remove the old leaves from all the H. orientalis hybrids, which by this time are looking torn and battered. This enables the flowers to be shown to advantage and also reduces the risk of fungal diseases being past on.

Propagation

Two methods are used to increase one's stock of plants. The first is division. This offers the gardener the best way of increasing the numbers of named forms or special individuals, as hellebores in general are very promiscuous. Division is best done around early September. Avoid taking miserable little pieces as your progation stock, divide properly. Seed is the second. Most hellebore seed is ripe by mid-summer and if not collected straight away will fall to the ground and germinate there. The best time to sow is when the seed is fully ripe, normally in the second half of June or early July. Hellebore seed does not need winter's freezing to spark germination, this is a myth. Sowing in pots will give the best results. Most will germinate by Christmas and the majority will flower after two years and all should by the third year. John Innes compost is perhaps the best and is best topped off with a dressing of fine grit. Be warned though, seed propagation is a very haphazard method. When germination has taken place, plunge into a cold frame or greenhouse for protection from the elements and give them plenty of light. Pot up the resulting seedlings in the following spring, when the first true leaf is showing. The resulting plants however, will very often be a motley crew and is a slow process.

Fungal Diseases

Hellebores are on the whole trouble-free, but do suffer sometimes from fungal diseases of which Black Spot is the commonest, characterised by black or brown blotches on the leaves. It attacks all parts of the plant and as always attacks those plants which are growing poorly. As to what to use as a spray? The RHS recommends mancozeb, we have used benomyl. It is probably best to vary the chemical to guard against any build up of immunity. Spray around once a month during the growing season and saturate the plant, spraying into the crown of the plant to protect the embryo flower buds. It is also important to remove all affected leaves as well.

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