Those are all very nice, @NutcrackerSouthSomerset. Make sure the soil around them doesn’t dry out too much, especially if they’re very close to the photinia. Some of mine were very unhappy and constantly wilting in the summer when I’ve had them planted near a large shrub. My soil is probably not ideal for them.
The soil is loamy clay, with plenty of compost/soil improver forked in. They won’t be that near to the photinia, about a metre and a half away and in a fair bit of shade cast by a fence and a 3 metre camellia further along. I managed to bring a sack of leaf mould from previous garden which will probably go around them too. No deciduous trees (yet)in this a garden, so am going to have to go begging to daughter whose got loads of leaves!
It was interesting to hear garden writer Val Bourne say that she dead-heads her pollenated hellebore blooms. For her they are like roses - by dead-heading we are spurring the plant to make more blooms over a longer period. The pollenated flowers make such lovely, hugely lasting cut flowers and are good for floating in a bowl (as the heads we see are not petals but long-lasting, leathery sepals). It's good to know you can take blooms for inside and boost your plant at the same time.
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Also my "Merlin" has been thoroughly pollinated: