How to plant and care for hellebores

Learn with this practical sheet how to plant hellebores and take care of them:

How to plant hellebores

Choose a place where water DOES NOT STAGNATE in winter nor in summer. Hellebores are very resistant plants but don’t like too wet places; otherwise they can rot.
Plant your hellebore approximately 5 cm above the normal ground level (after having taken off the pot, of course). Don’t add soil or compost above the root clod (see beside). If you did this, growth could slow down or disappear, the plant does not flower or can eventually die.
Be careful with mulch because this can increase the risk of rot at the plant’s basis.

If you have followed our above planting advice, maintenance of your hellebores will be much easier:

Be careful when watering. Avoid excesses of water with hellebores.
If you see that your hellebore starts to rot on its basis or develops black spots or traces on its foliage, you can treat the whole plant (foliage as well as the basis) with Bordeaux mixture (used in organic agriculture). This is preventive and healing.
Take off wilted flowers. They take energy from the plant for the production of seed. The hellebore will become much stronger and healthier in the following years. As it is difficult to identify wilted flowers of hellebores, take a look at the picture on the right. This flower should be cut off, even if it’s still gorgeous.
DO NOT take off leaves at the beginning of winter and before flowering, as it is advised in many books and nurseries. Those leaves are an essential part of the plant and are vital for it. Your hellebore will then become stronger and healthier the following season. Prune only blackened leaves.
Weed your garden as the enemy number one of herbaceous plants is weed. Not only it hides herbaceous plants, but it can dominate them and even make them die.
Clean your hellebores regularly: take off awful leaves (blackened) and dead flowers to leave space for new ones.