New Strollie's up

First Hellebores opened

The first species crocus pops

I enjoyed your January stroll. I'm jealous of your Dusty Miller. It's a plant I've always liked but not had much sucess with here.

The above Hellebore is very pretty. I've read about them - will they really bloom in the spring when there is still snow on the ground?

They sure do down here MK, and I've seen lotsa published refs to them doing so in far north east of US and England. One type is known casually as the 'Christmas Rose' because it blooms thereabouts. Another group as the 'Easter Rose' for obv reason. Altho, down here the 'Easter' ones are in bloom NoW ! - but the sturdy bloom lasts for sev months, albeit faded to a greenish cast, after sev weeks.

Give um go this year MK! I know you will enjoy having such early blooms, what with your late-arriving summers, compared to ours. Also, try the snowdrops for Jan-Feb bloom and species crocus for Feb or Mar bloom up there. No one should have to go so long without flowers

Here’s a good ref for you on growing Hellebores in W. Virginia – the Glick guy at
Sunfarm site
grows and breeds them right there in your state. He does some fascinating work.

I planted one Hellebore last spring. Somewhere I got the idea that they needed acidy soil, and as expensive as the durn thing was I wanted to see how it would do first, because where I wanted to put it has more clayey base soil (from builder fill). My one try with azalias wasn't satisfactory. The Hellebore seems ok, and it did bloom, but the blooms are smaller than I was expecting. Maggie, you have clay soil from what I gather--how do you care for your Hellebores? Do they really need the azalia treatment?

They are happiest in a neutral pH to slightly alkaline soil, with tons of humus. Yours will probably put on more size, and the blooms will prob be bigger next year. They a take a good while to get settled in.

As for the clay - as long as it has been improved by turning in generous amounts of humus, drains well and is supplemented with more composts once or twice a year (ergo, has good earthworm and microb populations) the clay is great for plants preferring moist cool root zones for 2 reasons. The sticky clay particles retain water longer – which is great when it can drain off any excess easily. And, our black-clay based soil contains generous nutrients, which can easily be absorbed by plant roots once the nutrients pass through the microbes little bodies.

The tricky bit is keeping the clay aerated enough to drain freely. Raised beds on sloping land, such as my little patch under the oaks (where the azaleas and hellebores live) makes it easier to deal with. Other practices include gypsum supplements every 2-3 years, and twice yearly bark mulch and composts toppings. Also, I have paths/stepping stones in the bed to avoid tromping it down. When I have to stomp around on the soil, I try to remember to lightly fork up where I’ve been.

Two of my beds that do not drain quickly, revert to sticky clay faster than those on top of the sloped lot. One is getting the rice hull treatment and the other one ,, well,, we dug all the plants out of it this weekend – am widening the bed and will be raising it 8 to 10 inches with retainers in March, and backfilling over the clay base with superb purchased bedding soil.

Be sure to get the Lenten Rose, Helleborus orientalis and not the Christmas Rose, H. niger (named for its black roots – not its white flowers). The cream, pink, plum, purple and mauvey H. orientalis suffer our hot weather better. Like the azaleas, they have survived many Texas summers here, even before I installed a sprinkler system 2 years ago. Hope that raises your confidence to add more this year. They are so uplifting. As I write this, the hellebore blooms are covered in icy sleet and will be fine when the sun returns. But alas, the daffs are melting, face down on the ground. Glad I brought some in for the table yesterday.

Which one of us should quit first? I can't seem to turn off the puter tonight, but am having fun. :o)

Oh,oh. I'll have to check the tag tomorrow. I think it say orientalis, but I was disappointed that the flowers were flat white, when I was expecting something pink, or multicolored like yours. Tags do have a way of getting moved around in nurseries.

I am glad to hear Hellebores don't need acid, and are really pretty tough. I may proceed with my original plan to put three under a decidous tree up by the house in front for all to see!

Where abouts DO you live? I had heard that the black clays were fertile. Unfortunately the "soil" right around my house is mostly junky builder fill. I have been working on amending it. As much as lava sand is recomended, should it not be added to clayey soil, which as you mention already retains water? Isn't that lava sand's main purpose? I took note of your rice hull amemdment.

Icy road conditions caused cancellation of Master Gardeners class today, so have some free time. My Hellbores are also blooming now and think it worth mentioning that it took three years for the flowers to get to large enough size to stand out from the leaves, which tend to camouflage the flowers, at least in my case. Also, mine are in total shade, but I'm interested to know how much sun they can tolerate. Thanks Maggie for your wealth of knowledge and generous heart.

Sandra, In your case, you should only add light sprinkling of lava sand for the mineral nutrient value if you think it needs it, rather than enough to effect water retention. I had a miserably unhappy rose that I treated with a light topping of lava sand last spring. Can’t be sure if that’s what helped it, but it finally started behaving this fall, for the first time in the 5 years its been here.
I live in SW Ft. Worth. I call it the Oreo cookie dirt – with a lot more white filling than chocolate on top ;-)

Barbara, I think mine took 3 years to reach their prime too, but were little bare root things to begin with. Gallon size might reach a decent bloom stage sooner, but ya know how those other ‘variables’ can confuse us all the more.
Thanks for your input. Mine are in total summer shade that is sunny in winter, after the leaves fall. The oaks have been very well thinned out in recent years, but some years, it has had more winter shade when the canopy was more dense,,, since it is the kind of red oak that dribbles its leaf fall for 4 months, until the new buds break in March. Maddening! They seem to like a dabbled shade in summer, even more than full shade. I have not tried them in full sun in Texas, although they do well under open English skies.
Looking forward to visiting with you about the Master Gardens program Barbara. So proud of you for taking it on.