My garden over the last few days

[hopalong]

Beginning to look blooming lovely. It's been a particularly good year for hellebores.

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[hopalong]

[saddad]

Excellent Hopalong... I don't have much luck with hellebores so am very appreciative of those who do...  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

They need a bit of patiance sometimes, but they seem to be almost indestructible.

[hopalong]

There are now many different forms and colours of hellebores, but most of them seem to prefer a bit of shade and an alkaline or neutral soil. A good mulch in the autumn helps - a large dollop of home-made garden compost works for me.

[GREENWIZARD]

lovely

[Georgie]

There are now many different forms and colours of hellebores, but most of them seem to prefer a bit of shade and an alkaline or neutral soil. A good mulch in the autumn helps - a large dollop of home-made garden compost works for me.

Beautiful Hellebores, Hopalong.  I only grow H. Niger.  They get top dressed with leaf mould in autumn but this year I've had no flowers - just lots of fresh new leaves.  This has never happened before and I can't understand it. 

G x

[hopalong]

There are now many different forms and colours of hellebores, but most of them seem to prefer a bit of shade and an alkaline or neutral soil. A good mulch in the autumn helps - a large dollop of home-made garden compost works for me.

Beautiful Hellebores, Hopalong.  I only grow H. Niger.  They get top dressed with leaf mould in autumn but this year I've had no flowers - just lots of fresh new leaves.  This has never happened before and I can't understand it. 

G x

That's odd, Georgie. I've heard that the leaves of H Niger sometimes swamp the flowers but have never seen it.  I've also heard they can be short-lived. I understand they like a shady spot and lots of moisture-retentive humus.  Leaf mould may not give them the nutrition they need.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If they turn out to be short lived there's probably something wrong. They don't like hot sun or drying out, for instance. If you trim the old leaves in January you avoid any swamping. It does happen to some extent on my anonymous hybrids.

[Georgie]

Well, they are in a very shady spot, don't dry out and I always remove most of the old leaves around December.  So I reckon the time has probably come to pot them up into fresh compost.  Thanks for your tips.

G x

[Robert_Brenchley]

Is the pot big enough?

[Georgie]

Is the pot big enough?

Both plants are in 30cm pots and have flowered happily in the past.  If they need anything bigger than that then I'm afraid it's either freecycle or the compost heap for them.

G x

[Robert_Brenchley]

They should be OK, assuming they haven't grown into massive clumps or anything.  They're normally almost indestructible.