The hybrids come in different colours - H. niger is only white The only drawback of many of the hybrids is that they often cross, so you can end up with some wishy washy colours over time. I don't like pastel colours, so I steer clear of a lot of the pink ones. I have a dark one which stays true - H. Blue Lady, which is a rich, dark purple.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We have comparatively few here, but where we lived before it used to take all of January and February to get round all of the ones which needed cutting back and the leaves filled the wheelbarrow over 30 times.
We did have problems with the Black Death of Hellebore there so they had to be done if only to see which ones needed digging out.
Always thought you were a dark lady Fairy!! I bought a collection a few years back,and a pack of Niger recently,in front of me here. Funnily enough,just read on Monty's page in the Mail supplement .....cut the leaves back now....we don't
I read a little bit more about the Hellebore black death after this topic came up last night. The link with aphids seems to get mentioned a lot, and maybe that's why I've never encountered it. No aphids here at the time plants are budding/flowering, and I don't have loads of plants which are susceptible either. The birds hoover them up rapidly when they do appear later in spring. Perhaps that's helped, or maybe I've just been lucky. The amount you had previously would certainly have made it very difficult though @Palustris. I don't have a big enough garden for huge quantities I certainly get a bit of leaf damage with black spot and those are removed and I don't put those in my home compost bin. I have some of the White Lady ones too @Nanny Beach, but they're much more variable - dark spotting etc, rather than pure white like the nigers. All the seedlings I've got have come from those rather than the dark one, as far as I can tell. The garden isn't really old enough yet for me to judge.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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The only drawback of many of the hybrids is that they often cross, so you can end up with some wishy washy colours over time. I don't like pastel colours, so I steer clear of a lot of the pink ones.
I have a dark one which stays true - H. Blue Lady, which is a rich, dark purple.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The amount you had previously would certainly have made it very difficult though @Palustris. I don't have a big enough garden for huge quantities
I certainly get a bit of leaf damage with black spot and those are removed and I don't put those in my home compost bin.
I have some of the White Lady ones too @Nanny Beach, but they're much more variable - dark spotting etc, rather than pure white like the nigers. All the seedlings I've got have come from those rather than the dark one, as far as I can tell. The garden isn't really old enough yet for me to judge.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...