Welcome to ‘In A Vase On Monday’, when I am linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to join in with her challenge to find something from the garden to put in a vase every week.
Things are certainly getting easier now – the garden is filling up with flowering daffodils, crocus and other small bulbs. I even have the first delicate blossom on a dark leaved cherry tree. Despite the temptations offered by the bulbs, I have not made much use of my helleborus orientalis so far this year and they are looking so glorious in the garden that I thought they deserved a turn in the limelight.
Hellebores are one of my favourite flowers regardless of the season, but they are also the highlight of the early spring garden. There is nothing else at this time of year that can fill your garden with such a variety of forms and colours. Hellebores are available as both single and double flowers in shades from the palest pastel pink through to almost black.
I like to grow my hellebores in full sun. Although they are usually thought of as candidates for a shady border (and they will flower in such a position), hellebores actually thrive in full sun. My plants growing in full sun in a rich soil have 20 or 30 stems, each bearing 2 or 3 flowers, whilst those in the woodland that were planted at the same time have only 5 or 6 stems. I am considering moving the ones in the woodland into a sunnier position and certainly any I buy in the future will be planted into a lovely sunny spot.
The flowers start to appear in early January, but it takes until late February for the stems to reach their full height. Once open the flowers last for many weeks – slowly developing seed pods, so the show extends throughout late winter and well into spring.
Every January I remove all the old foliage from every plant. Last years leaves will be large and coarse and often covered with black spots which are a sign of a common hellebore fungal disease. These leaves should all be cut off at the ground leaving just the newly emerging flower heads. New foliage will appear soon enough. The old foliage must be burned or binned – putting it in the compost risks spreading the fungal disease around the garden.
As hellebores grow best in a rich soil I feed them with fish, blood & bone twice a year – once as I cut the leaves back in January and again in late April to give them a boast before the summer. I also mulch around the plants with leaf mold as I clear the borders in March.
Hellebores are tricky to use as a cut flower – the stems of these ones have been seared in boiling water for 20 seconds before being arranged in the glass jar, but even then I would only expect them to last two or three days. The most long lasting way to use the flowers is to float them in a shallow bowl of water.
Not everything has to be long lasting though and for a few days at least I am happy to be enjoying my hellebores on their elegantly drooping stems.
The last week has been a good one for gardening – although the temperatures are still a little low the ground is quickly drying out and I have been able to work through quite a few borders. I have just started sowing the seeds of half hardy annuals in the greenhouse and I am planting out the hardy annuals that were sown last autumn. This morning I went to visit the venue for the wedding that I am doing the flowers for in April – I have to admit to feeling a few nerves at the moment – will my bulbs be up in time, or will they have gone over? Growing flowers for an event is a tricky business and I can feel a few sleepless nights coming!
I hope you have enjoyed this weeks vase of hellebores and that you will pop over to Cathy’s blog to see what she and the increasing band of others have made this week. I must say a big thank you to Cathy for organising this lovely weekly meme and do think about joining in with us – it really is a case of the more the merrier and anything goes.
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What an exquisite arranger you are! The photo with the pussy willows around the vase just takes my breath away. I grow many hellebores in my shade garden and of course, their little heads are always down. After reading this, I’m going to try them in sun, maybe then they will look up. What is the hybrid of that deep wine color?
Thank you Susan! I will have a look for a label tomorrow but I think I have probably lost the name – Nelson was a puppy two years ago and his favourite game was removing my plant labels! I doubt your hellebores will look up in the sun – mine don’t but they do stand out more when the light catches them and I have a lot more flowers to play with.
Such a wonderful variety of colors, Julie. So, I will try some in full sun! Our spring sun is fine; it’s just the summer sun that is SO hot and unrelenting here. There is a wonderful Hellebore “farm” near here, so I may head out there this weekend. The weather has become warm and oh so lovely!
It isn’t quite lovely here yet, but things are improving! I am very jealous of your ‘hellebore farm’ – it sounds like a wonderful place for a visit. Do post some photos if you go.
Beautiful arrangement, styling and photography.
Thank you!
That’s an interesting observation about the difference between growing in full sun and in woodland – could there be other factors involved too, like soil type? I have gradually cut off all the leaves for the first time – I don’t mind if they are surrounded by other plants but I don’t like to see them standing bare and naked 😉 Your pink veined one is gorgeous – I have nothing like that one. Your photographs are especially gorgeous today Julie – thanks you so much for sharing them
Thank you Cathy – I was quite pleased with the photos myself this week! I always get a huge kick out of removing last years foliage from my hellebores – it feels like spring is really coming. Although they seem a bit bare for a few weeks they soon fill out.
Yes, I think I am converting to leaf removal too…
Wow I love these hellebores and how they droop a bit…perfect. And how you staged this with blooming willow…amazing!
Thank you Donna – I should have said that the willow is shop bought – my own tree never produces such perfect catkins along the whole stems.
Glad you chose to display your hellebores today Julie. Very lovely. I appreciate the advice that hellebores can withstand sun–I have much more sun than shade in my current garden. It’s exciting you’re doing flowers for another wedding.
Thank you Susie and it is certainly worth trying one or two in a sunny spot – just remember to enrich the soil before planting and then mulch and feed them once or twice a year.
So lovely! It’s wonderful what a wide range of hues you have simply in the one vase. I confess to wondering whether I could wheedle some hellebores into surviving in the garden here – but I doubt it! So I’m very happy to see yours looking so scrumptious 🙂
I think they do like a proper winter Amy so they would probably struggle in your garden – you will just have to enjoy the images that we post!
You have a wonderful selection of Hellebores and you are right to experiment with positions for various plants. Here it is usually the opposite, plants that say they need sun often do best here in bright shade or even full shade for some! I know it sounds weird but shade can be very different in different places. Your images are as always superb. I have a new camera but it will be a while before I can use it well.
Thank you Christina and how exciting that you have a new camera – I will look forward to seeing the photos that you take with it.
That is a beautiful arrangement Julie. You have such a nice mix of different shades.
Thank you Cathy – it is the beautiful range of colours that make me love hellebores so much!
Most of mine grow in full sun now and seem to do well but they also have rich soil which doesnt bake dry in the summer and I think this is important too.Thanks for the tip on searing the ends I might try that next week though no doubt I will end up with a bowl of floating flowers 🙂
Lovely post – and beautiful flowers. Thank you for the advice, I’ve just acquired some hellebores, and now I know what to do with them!
Wow, what a spendid vase, thanks for sharing!
A beautiful arrangement. I find that the hellebores last longer in water if I pick them once they have set seed, although the centres don’ t look so pretty.
Your posts haven’ t been appearing in my reader so I thought that you had been too busy to post. WordPress does this from time to time, it’ s most annoying.
Splendid blooms and a wonderful arrangement. I love looking at your photos and reading your posts!
Beautiful…just beautiful…
Love,
Titti