I've heard that you should cut off the leaves at this time of year to better expose the flowers. I would have thought that this would have a detrimental effect on the growth of the plant. Any advice welcome.
I think there are two main reasons you may come accross this advice. If you have black spots on the leaves then it could be hellebore leaf spot and removal of all affected leaves is usually suggested. The other is to expose the flowers which can sometimes be hidden by old leaves. Some of mine do get leaf spot so I usually trim those off when I tidy the borders in late winter.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
The plants actually do not need the leaves now. They will soon die off and be replaced by new ones. Bodnant Gardens cut all their H. hybridus leaves off in October. Leaf removal only applies to that particular type of Hellebore, the others should only have dead or dying leaves removed.
Just finished doing ours, 35 wheelbarrow loads of leaves!
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