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Saturday, February 24, 2018

Hello, Hellebores!

In the world of easy-care plants, Hellebores are probably my favorite.  They thrive in shade, can take dry or damp conditions, and they bloom their hearts out for months and months from late winter till late spring with a wide variety of flower colors and forms. 









The only maintenance that Hellebores require is a careful trim at this time of year, when new growth is emerging from the center of the plant, to remove last year's old foliage.  (I took these photos earlier today, while I was outside doing just that.)  I have a LOT of Hellebores, and it only took me a little over two hours to do all of them.









Most of the Hellebores in my garden are seedlings from the few named varieties that I bought at plant sales years ago.  Happy Hellebores reseed easily, and I am glad to have them spread as far as they want in the areas where they grow.  When seedlings grow where I don't want them, I dig them and move them to another spot, or I give them to friends.  I allow my shade garden to get a bit wild, so masses of seedling Hellebores (or Hostas or Italian Arum) are a good thing.









It looks like this year's Hellebore season should be a very good one.  Bloom time is just starting, with all of these flowers you see here and a LOT more still to come.