Allotments 4 All
Produce => Non Edible Plants => Topic started by: Doris_Pinks on March 01, 2006, 15:30:41
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We are moving house (hopefully to a bigger garden! ;D) and I have a couple of large lovely hellebores, do not wan't to leave the new peeps with an empty garden, so the question is can I split them?
Thanks
DP
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Yes, you can divide them. This is normally done in March, after flowering.
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Thank You Eric! :-*
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You can also grow them in containers, which might be handy for when you move. ;)
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I've split them and also moved them - in midsummer no less - because I desperately needed space for something else. They seemed totally imperturbed.
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You can move them any time, they're as tough as they come.
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But also v beautiful and gorgeous in flower from late October till March or April here.
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That's interesting, mine never flower before January.
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And following on from DP's question, my little nursery is flogging them off cheap cheap...but I can't remember how cheap...I think 2.50 a plant. Good value?
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Yes ours aren't supposed to either according to the tag but they do. Mild spot in the garden? Who knows? I just enjoy it.
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Mine are the lovely green ones and flower untill mid April they are so beautifull i just love the colour, we bought a white one for 1-99 at a garden centre it is about 8inches high and has 2 flowers on it so i think that is a good bargain eh! .
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Oh thanks all, now to figure out how to get all my babies out of my garden without it looking as if I have taken everything! :o ;D
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DP don't worry about it, I have a huge amount of plants in pots, in fact all my hellebores are in pots.
These days I think people appreciate that gardeners invest great amounts in their plants, are do understand that a lot will move when they do !!
Good luck with the move, are you going far?
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I bought a house from a landscape gardener one January, and there were lovely (and rare!) hellebores in the front garden, which she said she would take away when it was time. It was a delight to look out of the kitchen window at them that first year, most were pink and purple. I still remember coming back one March evening and finding big divots where all the hellebores had been :'(
If you take them with you it would be kinder DP ;D, good luck with your move!
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And if you get really stuck you can always ask me for some nice fresh seeds from a variety of plants and take pot luck as to the colours!
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I was always led to beleive tha thellebores hated being moved and sulked badly for some time after being divided and /or moved. Now i have heard from 3 different sources that its OK to move them preferably with a large rootball on them. Whats going on? Arent they supposed to have deep roots that resent disturbance?
I am not complaining. My original 2 plants (parents of numerous and varied seedlings that have yet to flower ;D) are now in the wrong place and was thinking i'd have to bin them and start again. Now it seems I can save them(?!)
So March/after flowering is the best time to move them then? I'll have to choose the latter because due to the cold winter, its march and they havent flowered yet!!! (Helleborus x hybridus the lenten hellebore).
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Any time I want to move the things, or get perennail weeds out from around them, I just dig them up with a good-sized ball of soil, and put themm back where I want one. I've never had one wilt on me yet. Maybe if you washed the soil off the roots they wouldn't like it.
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Eric, yet again a :-* for that, I may just take you up on your offer! :)
Flowerlady, nope staying in the same town, bigger house, bigger mortgage, we are MAD! ;D
Supersprout, :'( I would have been gutted!
Richard, mine are JUST beginnig to flower their little socks off! Hurrah!
Robert, thanks for that, I am timid about moving plants I am not sure of!!
Dp
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Mine were all dug up during the Christmas holidays, and they're flowering beautifully now. I'll try to remember to get a pic.
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These were moved recently, and you can see it hasn't inhibited them.
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ohhhhhhhhhhh, I love Hellebores, thank you for the photos
Richard!
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Robert they are lovely, is that also an Arum Lily to the left on the second photo?
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That's Arum italicum, a bit wonky becase it was dug up and I didn't put it back straight.
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Robert were those actualy moved in flower? If so it shows that the 'received wisdom' with them is complete bunk.
Hmm might be moving at least one of mine sooner than expected. I have a new home in mind for one of them, and would like to see what it looks like in flower in that spot, without waiting a whole year to do so!
PS Doris: It was Robert not Richard who posted the pictures ;-)
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Some of them were either just coming into flower or just about to, I'm not sure which. Either way it makes no difference; transpiration is very slow this time of year, and as long as you disturb the rootball as little as possible, I find there's very little that will wilt or be noticeably set back if it's moved in winter or early spring. One odd exception is Trilliums; if they're moved now, they grow away as though nothing had happened, flower as normal, then go floppy as soon as we get some warm sunny weather in May or June! They really need to be moved after flowering if at all possible.
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Some of them were either just coming into flower or just about to, I'm not sure which. Either way it makes no difference; transpiration is very slow this time of year, and as long as you disturb the rootball as little as possible, I find there's very little that will wilt or be noticeably set back if it's moved in winter or early spring. One odd exception is Trilliums; if they're moved now, they grow away as though nothing had happened, flower as normal, then go floppy as soon as we get some warm sunny weather in May or June! They really need to be moved after flowering if at all possible.
Interesting... - Thanks
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I have serious qualms about received wisdom. I have even transplated a flowering "Sexy Rexy" rose in July, simply because it was that or stick it in the compost. It survived and continued blooming.
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I have serious qualms about received wisdom. I have even transplated a flowering "Sexy Rexy" rose in July, simply because it was that or stick it in the compost. It survived and continued blooming.
Yes i have done things like that too. If something is in the wrong place or is simply in the way, nothing is lost by trying to move it. If it dies it dies - it would have had to have been dug up to bin anyway. If it survives then you have a larger and more mature specimen where otherwise you might have a small young garden centre plant.
Thats the rub. You might be able to buy another plant of the same type at the garden centre, but you'd never be able to buy one of the same size, therefore moving the plant is well worth doing, even if it is the middle of summer!!
Gardening 'rules' are there to be broken or at least stretched as far as they can go as far as i am concerned ;-) .
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oh Thanks Richard, Robert fab pics! :-[
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Just an Update:
I havent moved my original plants but I have recently moved some of the 'seedlings', some of which have become large plants and have flowered.
I did this by preparing a hole in its new home and diging out a 'block' of soil around the roots with a border spade. The whole block of plant ,soil and roots was then transported to the new site in a bucket. Back filled and well watered I made sure eacj plant had a nice mulch of rich homemade compost. I have kept close eye on them but si far so good - no major wilting. There are a couple of plants than didnt move with much soil so they will need carefull monitoring. Hopefully all will be well and they will settle in nicely in their new homes!
This moving was done end of april-early may. So technicaly 'after flowering' ;D
Like we said before when things need moving they have to move. The plants were too crowded in the nursery bed where i had lined them out last year. Also i need the space in the nurdery bed!!
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One odd exception is Trilliums; if they're moved now, they grow away as though nothing had happened, flower as normal, then go floppy as soon as we get some warm sunny weather in May or June! They really need to be moved after flowering if at all possible.
I don't have any probems moving Trilliums now - I have some fabulous clumps of 'Snowbunting', T.rivale and T. vaseyi that I moved this time last year, they seem to be much better this year too.
Just goes to show there is no one 'right way' to do things :)
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It's probably something to do with my soil, which dries out rather fast. It's been very dry this spring, obviously, and they've all shown the same tendency to flop on sunny days, but to nothing like the extent I see it with newly transplanted plants.
Do you know the best way to send them in the post, and when?
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Hi Robert,I always send mine out when they are dormant (September/October depending on the weather. I dig them, pack them in slightly moist peat and post them the same day. Never has a failure yet (touch wood :))
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That's what I was thinking of; I'm swapping some of my kurabayashii for grandiflorum, luteum, recurvatum and sessile. Do you have any pics of yours?
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Not yet, the best ones are in bud at the moment (Snowbunting, vaysei and rivale purple heart), these are only small at the moment (2 - 4 growths).
But I'd be up for swaps for kurabayashii, I have some lovely sessile and recurvatum.
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Whatever you've got available to swap, just PM me.