If you don't see any green shoots at all on your hellebore in the next month or so, it may not have survived. Flowers come out first on hellebores, and if this was too small a plant to flower, you'll need to wait until leaves emerge.

If it is dead, leaving it outside should not have been the culprit as it did not get that cold this winter in a lot of places. Hellebores survive in the ground in zone 7a, although in pots it will not take as much cold.

Where are you located and what kind of winter did you have? It was pretty dry in a lot of places. The pot may have dried out too much, especially if it was a small pot and you did no watering.

But I wouldn't throw it away just yet. If the pot is dry, I'd give it a from the bottom soaking and see what happens in the next couple of weeks. Are there any leaves at all, even left over from last year?

Was it a hybridus? My hybridus (orientalis) are up and blooming, but some species are just emerging.

I've lost potted hellebores by leaving them above ground and unprotected.

I leave seedling hellebores in 4" pots outdoors all winter. They're very hardy, at least to zone 5. You should still see leaves on it from last year, may be browned from cold - the temps were lower here this year and all of my inground hellebores had burnt leaves, which is unusual. Tiarella is good to zone 4/5 too.

My hellebore was dead, I uprooted the container to see and there roots were non-existent. It's like everything below the ground level just disappeared. I put my Tiarella into a smaller pot and I'm waiting to see what's going to happen.

Hi, I have to pot up a ton of plants for a plant sale, and do not see any reason to use premium potting soil. Could make my own but it's alot of work and time (I make my own for certain purposes, so I'm speaking from experience). Where can the cheapest commercial potting soil be found, in the vicinity of Silver Spring MD? Thanks for your suggestions!

regards, Judy (aka azaleaphile)