Heavenly Hellebores

Helleborus x hybridus (Winter Rose)

Hellebores are temperate climate plants that require cool to cold winters to flower, making them ideally suited to Southern Highlands gardens and Robertson in particular. The Robertson area is well known for being cooler than its surrounding areas, for its high rainfall and sometimes foggy conditions, giving hellebores the reliably cold, moist winters they need to flower well. Robertson's famous rich red-brown soils, derived from an ancient basalt lava flow, are structurally ideal for the growth of plants, and the generally high rainfall supports luxuriant growth, exactly the free-draining, organically rich conditions hellebores thrive in.

Growing Tips

• Plant en masse – Hellebores look their best planted in good-sized drifts rather than as isolated specimens. Used as a ground cover under deciduous trees, they look wonderful year-round.

• Light – They need summer shade and some winter sun, so they're best grown beneath deciduous trees.

• Soil – They thrive in rich, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter — a good match for Robertson's basalt-derived soils, which are naturally fertile and free-draining.

• Watering – Water in well after planting and keep up regular watering through their first summer. After that, they're quite drought tolerant. Robertson's reliably higher rainfall takes much of this work off your hands once plants are established.

  
  

Maintenance

In early winter, the old foliage starts looking tatty just as new growth begins pushing up from the base of the plant. Once you see that new growth, it's safe to cut the old foliage right back to the ground, before the plant flowers. This isn't essential, but it tidies up the plant and shows off the flowers better.

This is also the time to fertilise with a slow-release, all-purpose plant food, scatter it around the plants and then mulch.

Taken from growing notes from Post Office Farm Nursery.