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do I cut back hellebores, if so when?

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  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,069

    My purple one is flowering just now. The leaves are always healthy on it so I only remove leaves if they're too big or looking rough. The flowers are tall so they perch above the foliage  image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • I have a hellebores plant that has finished flowering a month ago. I cut those off. I am now left with very big leaves. Do i cut them or leave them. The plant is Pink Angel. Thanks

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,032

    I would remove leaves Dec. / Jan. time, not now, they are feeding the plant.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Thank you so much. I will do as you say. love this site by the way. 

  • MikekallyMikekally Posts: 13
    Hi all sorry for picking up an old thread but I'm confused by all the different types of hellebore, and don't really know which ones I should cut back.
    I have a greenish flowering one with a single upright stem and many flower heads on top (back left in pic), came with a tag helleborus sternii - I didn't prune back leaves over winter like I should have, but should I do it now as they've started to blacken. Also, do I cut back the flower stalk to the base after flowering or leave it alone?
    I also have a double Ellen picotee - again, single upright tall stalk with multiple flowers. How should this be pruned? It's leaning at the mo because it's so top heavy (back right of picture).
    Finally my favourite but no idea what it's called, I have a many stemmed hellebore, purple-ish backs and flowers fading through pink to green in centre, very droopy flowers and leaves - any idea what species/variety, and how to look after?

    Thanks so much in advance, sorry for long post!


  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,102
    edited April 2018
    The one at the back looks like the Corsican hellebore ... H. argutifolius ... you don't cut this one back http://www.bethchatto.co.uk/e-h/helleborus/helleborus-argutifolius-corsicus.htm 

    The ones at the front look like one of the Helleborus niger types.  You don't cut these back either.    Just let them do their thing, and next autumn/spring look out for little baby seedlings springing up around them.  

    The one to the right of the pic looks like a H. orientalis type ... with these you remove the old leaves to show off the flowers, as you have done.  :)

    Lovely plants  :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • MikekallyMikekally Posts: 13
    @Dovefromabove thank you SO much that's so helpful! Appreciate all the detail!
  • Some of my hellebores didn’t flower at all this year. (They are big healthy looking plants.) Ant idea why?
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