Friday, March 16, 2007
Helleborus Niger... Yea Or Nea?
I've never quite made up my mind about Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose. Its very early flowers (late February here) are welcome enough, but the foliage... well, it's usually rather ratty. This year we had a foot of wet snow, which ended up being four inches of ice, so niger (its species name refers to the blackish roots), looks like someone sat on it. The last couple of mild winters were kind to this plant, but this year, not so much. Garden writers tell you to just cut the foliage off, but I think its flowers look kind of goofy when blooming nakedly... some plants can pull that off, and some can't. Still, I'll keep it; all the other flowers blooming in the garden now are tiny... the silver dollar-sized blooms of H. niger are reason enough to give it a spot. I wonder if you can get plastic helleborus foliage?
// posted by IBOY @ 7:33 AM 
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A trick I learned from the Heronistas at Heronswood Gardens--when the hellebores begin to bloom I just cut all the ratty foliage off.
At least yours are blooming. Our H. niger formed buds and was just about to bloom when the cold weather came back and left us with a brown gloppy mess. I thought they were a tough plant but not so. I agree the foilage is not much to look at.
I think you should cut off the icky leaves and then just pile up more brown fall leaves around them. Looks natural the way you have them in the picture, and makes them look less naked...
I always trim the foliage way back on the orientalis type hellebores; since the new foliage comes up with the flowers, that looks fine, but I just don't know with nigers... the persisting foliage is kind of ugly, but I think the flowers look weird with no foliage... maybe I will try throwing some dead leaves on top of the rattiest parts.
Don
Don
Hiya iboy,
You might want to give H. n. "Potter's Wheel" a try: its flowers rise majestically above the leaves. They are better looking as well: a more even corolla and a brighter white. Sounds like an ad for a detergent ;-).
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You might want to give H. n. "Potter's Wheel" a try: its flowers rise majestically above the leaves. They are better looking as well: a more even corolla and a brighter white. Sounds like an ad for a detergent ;-).
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