March 4, 2009
That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler…okay, enough already. But it has been a dilemma here at the Fairegarden each year since the original few Hellebores have become hundreds if not thousands.
February 27, 2009
In the beginning the cutting of the old leathery fronds was a ritual of late January, something anticipated with delightful enthusiasm. Cutting off the ratty tatty would expose fresh new leaves unfolding and the promise of flowers in the swollen buds.
March 18, 2009
Never deadheaded, seed pods would form, scattering their precious innards and two years later the offspring began to appear. Lots of them. The gardener was thrilled to see the little babies, free plants are always cause for joy from those afflicted with tightwaddedness. The babies were planted into other beds over the course of time, growing into flowering sized beings. Those babies begat their own babies and so on and so on. All good, right?
In 2010 the striving towards the lowest level of gardening maintenance hatched the idea to experiment by leaving heretofore performed tasks undone. There were discoveries of what could and what could or should not be on the yearly to do listing. The Hellebores remained uncut. The result was less than satisfactory, it was downright unacceptable.
January 31, 2011
On a recent warm day, well above the normal upper level temperature swings of the roller coaster Southeast Tennessee zone 7a winter, the tools were grabbed and the large receptacle hauled up the slope to begin. There was a window of opportunity of about an hour or so to get the leaves cut off, cleaned up and composted before a horrendous downpour, possible thunderstorm, possible ice storm, possible snow storm was to reach us.
In past years, the tool used to cut was the Felco pruners #8 for small hands. I also have #9 for left hands. Why they do not make a small left handed version is a mystery. I would gladly pay extra for such a tool. It was felt that each leaf needed to be cut individually so as not to cut the precious flower buds off. Of course some buds were always cut accidentally anyway. This year, the cutting was attacked with the Fiskars hedge trimmers. Nice and sharp, a whole plant could be cleaned up at one go, being somewhat careful of the buds. Using the hedge trimmers allowed the entire collection of hellebores on the slopes, the ferngully shade area, the top of the daylily hill and the garage side to be shorn and tidied in less than an hour.
No other tasks were on the list, the energy of the morning coffee still sizzled in our veins and digestive tract. We whizzed through the cutting in record time with no backaches nor wrist throbbings afterwards. So dear and gentle readers, the cutting of the hellebores has been reinstated to the chore list. And a great big happy Check to that!
To read the previous accounts of this gripping saga click on the links below:
2008 Cutting Of The Hellebores
2009 Cutting The Hellebores
2010 Not Cutting The Hellebores
Frances
Fairegarden 
I cut, too, but about a month later than you do. Mine are still under ice and snow!
I took to my hellebores with the sit on lawn mower, just when the autumn leaves were falling. So easy! Up and down under the Manchurian pear arbor. More leaves fell covering the carnage and how neat it was. Looked so tidy. In spring looked fantastic with all new growth and so many flowers, never looked better.
Did the same in the woodlands area.
Wow, you have your hellebores cleaned up already. I was thinking I might be able to do this little chore this weekend if it warms up like they said it would. Have a good weekend.
Frances,
Guess I’ll cut mine this weekend, should be a small task. Thanks for the heads up on this. We do have some buds just coming up.
So how have you dealt with the precious buds? By lopping off a little higher and leaving them to grow past the stumps? Makes sense to me – for surely the remaining stems will decay rather than form a ‘crust’ of dead stalks over time the way some grasses do…
Hi Frances,
My problem right now is putting hellebores back in my shade garden again. I left beautiful ones at my last home, and they are so expensive to replace. I put one in last fall (couldn’t find anymore at the nursery) so we’ll see if I can add a couple more this spring.
Yours are lovely.
Eileen
Every year, I’ve seen hellebores on blogs and admired them. This year, at last, I have one. Only one. Don’t know what it is called – except it will have a white flower. Hadn’t realised I’d end up being challenged with questions like to cut or not to. First hurdle – will it flower or will it die?
Esther
Hi Frances: The hellebores in my garden are the Niger variety and do not have long stems like the orientalis. I don’t cut my leaves off as is suggested by some. If they were dead leaves yes I would but I have not found mine to be so. V
My nursery specializes in hellebores and I grow them in the ground instead of pots so I do have hundreds. Although I am usually a let-the-leaves-die-back-gracefully-and-untouched person, hellebore leaves don’t die back gracefully. Because they are wintergreen, they persist and look ugly. I use felcos. I am not sure how you used the hedge trimmers unless the buds hadn’t emerged at all. I like the idea though and will try it. Hard packed snow/ice here so no trimming yet.
Dear Frances, I didn’t have hellebores in my garden until 2008~I owe them all to you. After reading your posts and seeing them across the blogasphere, I bought 10 plants in bloom from the grocery store! They now play a wonderful late winter role my garden. Thank you! xxoogail ps I cut the leaves back.
Ha ha. Frances discovers electricity! OK, just kidding…….;-) As an aficionado of destruction in general, let me offer my hearty congratulations on your use of hedge trimmers on your misbehaving Hellebores. It’s funny, I remember following as you decided to let them run for that year. As I recall there were all sorts of interesting developments as well.
I’ve never cut back my hellebores, but then this will be only the second year for them, so we’ll see if they need it. Right now they’re buried under so much snow, I have no idea what they even look like. But the fact yours have produced so many offspring has me really excited–I hope mine are just as prolific!
To cut or not to cut, well thats another story. As for Hellebores I have in the past just left them, what a helluva mess, definately cut them back now, dont have that many though.
The do look so tidy when they’re trimmed. I like the idea of doing it with a hedge trimmer, but it will be awhile before mine are showing their faces. I’m much later than you.~~Dee
They sure do multiply over time. I had dug and divided some last year and have found hundreds of seedlings coming up. None of mine are big enough for a hedge trimmer, so for now I grab handfuls of leaves and just chop through.
You know my first thought was oh no, don’t cut those, how unnecessary. But then I saw the photo of the cut and uncut plants and I have to say, so glad you cut them. They look beautiful all shaped up for spring.
I always cut off the leaves in the fall when I put the garden to bed for the winter. When the blooms pop up, they look really dramatic. My neighbors gets really excited for that event so I have them planted near the sidewalk for everyone to enjoy.
I’m impressed that you were able to wield the hedge trimmers with such delicacy. My poor eye/hand coordination would result in serious bud loss!
Hedge shears-now why didn’t I think of that? I’m glad you discovered a way to cut down on the maintenance time. Hellebores do need to have those leaves tidied away. But on balance, they are low maintenance plants, as this is all you have to do them for the whole year.
I always cut back the leaves on mine and it was interesting to see that you couldnt stand leaving them!!
Put me in the “cut” column. The front yard is done, and the back should be tomorrow when temps are supposed to be in the 50’s!
I love those little Hellebores, but sadly they don’t make it in my small garden. I have tried twice now with no luck. What is your secret? I sure would like to get them started for the winter color. I had gotten the ones for my zone.
I belong to the cutting school too Frances – usually after Christmas. Worth experimenting though as it is a time consuming task but this is one that merits the time spent. Here they are just coming into flower 🙂
I’m so happy to hear this Frances. I worried all year about you not cutting back those ratty leaves. It is an annual ritual here in Helen’s Haven™ . However, I wait to the last possible moment keeping as much ground cover for the wildlife available. I also cut the seed heads right before the POP! At the JC Raulston Arboretum, where I am curator of the Winter Garden, we care for a boat load there. Since our annual tour is in February, we wait until after then to cut back the leaves. And we ALWAYS cut the seed heads, b/c we want to restricted their sexual forays as much as possible, if you know what I mean. What’s the point of breeding unknown varieties when we have such a wonderful collection named beauties in the garden. Oh and as can you imagine on seed pod cutting day, we have no shortage of volunteers…I plan to be in line first for the really rare black variety from Pine Knot Farms in VA. H.
I trimmed my hellebores this week, snip, snip each individual leaf carefully by hand. Looking at all my sprouting babies, I realized this could become a real chore! Next time: hedge trimmers! Thanks for the idea!
Oh, Frances…my hellebores are all buried under between 3-5 FEET of pure snow…protected of course with evergreen boughs, but I surely wonder when I’ll see them again…and how the new children will have fared. I hope it isn’t too much of a culture shock moving from the Faire Garden to the not-so-fair wilderness of Nova Scotia. They were fine going into winter so…I hope to have good reports in a few months. Honestly, it’ll take that long for it all to melt!
I too cut my hellebore foliage but it’s too soon here. (Not to mention we are still under snow cover on my north-facing front slope where most of them are). I think you can’t leave them alone, they just look too ratty. And I had quite a surprise last spring when I decided to divide one – just one – of my mature ones to have some to put in a bare spot in the back yard. It took me forever! And a hand saw, and lots of elbow grease. They are flourishing in the new spot but I probably won’t try that again any time soon.
If it ever stops raining here and I can make it across the sodden wasteland that was once my lawn, then I’ll trim my hellebores – but until then they’re on their own! 🙂
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