I never feed mine, they are in pretty deep shade, under a Magnolia tree. I have one variety that seems to have creamy-green flowers and those seem to spread easily and these do pretty much have grown over the last few years, but they are not fast growers so maybe that is why they are expensive. I like the long season of bloom though, from December into now.

About 10 years ago, I was first introduced to the wonder of hellebores by the volunteers who maintained the company gardens. They alerted me to a nursery in my area of Hamilton (which many around here know very well), that sold 1 gallon pots all for $5.99 (has since increased to $9.99) The great thing was that that nursery had jumped into hellebore propagation years ago - so their pots are always well established. When I've gone through my various hellebore madness stages over the years, I would go and stock up there. Last year was one of those phases of the moon, and I think I added about 10 new ones LOL. I wish you had a place like this around so you could stock up cheap! That being said, I'm now getting to the point where some of those varieties that I first planted have been coming back stronger and stronger. I just divided one of my clumps (photo attached) - I think the variety is 'Confetti Cake' - this variety grows fast and strong in my opinion, and the root mass that I divided was huge. But I honestly do nothing really to encourage growth, except planting and leaving to do their thing. I was surprised also when I realized that some of the older varieties I had purchased actually were producing seedlings (I think many of the newer varieties are sterile).

I have very heavy clay. I planted a few under a silver maple, where they are happily colonizing, both with seedlings and spreading. Yes, they are slow IME. And no, I don’t do anything here - no fert, no water except in the beginning.

Wow, all your Hellebores are nice and full and full of blooms! I'm glad Indianagirl that you mentioned you are growing in heavy clay - and you apparently don't have an issue.

North, I seem to remember reading that the creamy green flowered Hellebores do spread more easily. Mine don’t grow from December forward. Mine start in March and really are not fully up with all the leaves unfurled and flowers all open until the end of April.

So, no one is fertilizing and they do have a reputation for slow growing.

LaLennoxa, you are so lucky to have had a local source for Hellebores at such a great price! I often find some at a local plant sale every spring, but they are always the same variety…lol. I keep picking them up but I like to add different colors etc.

I do have some that produce seedlings, but I agree, the hybrids now don’t seem to.

I went looking for older photos to compare what I have now, but, I got completely distracted looking at old family photos…lol. So I will post some photos soon.

I’ve been thinking….this year, I am going to fertilize. Mine keep coming back but often only marginally larger than the year before. And I really want a bed of them ‘cheek to jowel’ In shady positions, under trees, I would be happy if they were a ground cover.

So, since they are slow growing, it’s fine, they are SO easy care and so pretty. I will just start planting more closer together. And I’m going to think of something to grow with them, that is a speedier grower.

Anyone have a favorite companion for Hellebores?

GGal, No, I’ve not been reading anything about sterle Hellebores, I’m simply reporting my own experience in my garden. “The hybrids don’t seem to produce seedlings” Is what I said. And I don’t see that I said there was any connection to the color of the bloom. I haven’t found any seedlings around the base of my newer hybrids, but I do have them around the base of the previous generation of Hellebore that I have, which I believe are Sunshine selections.

I have doubles and singles and white and pink and rose and black and yellow. So I have a good representation.

You use compost…that’s good to know. Would you say your Hellebores grow slowly or average?

I'm sorry. I guess I didn't understand your comments. Or I misunderstood them. 😯 The point that I was trying to make was that afa as the xhybridus forms are concerned, color has nothing to do with their ability to spread. And all the xhybridus produce fertile seeds. The only hybrids that are sterile are many of the intersectional ones with that limited color range of greenish cream to a mauvy pinky-purple color.

I would not consider hellebores to be very fast growers. It takes a few years for a clump to expand and expansion is certainly facilitated by self seeding. At least for those types that do self seed.

The self-set seedlings can take a few years to get to flowering size, so I try to sow easy annuals around. Does nothing to speed up hellebore gro'wth but does give you something interesting to look at while waiting. This year, I have the ubiquitous love in the mist' (nigella damascena), perpetually self-sowing limnanthes (have a white,with pink veins, this year - limnanthes rosea) and a lovely borage relative - omphalodes nitida) - nothing thuggish. The annuals seem to act as nurse plants for the tiny hellebore seedlings, while disguising the less than stellar older hellebore foliage.

I know this may sound a bit simple, Prairie...but I often find water to be the best 'fertiliser'...at least in the normally arid eastern half of the UK.

From what I've seen, it's sun that speeds up growth. I can barely get them established in heavy shade.

BTW, seedling hellebores are rapidly approaching weed status in my garden.

" I can barely get them established in heavy shade. "

And that makes a certain amount of sense :-) Hellebores are shade tolerant but not necessarily shade lovers. Most species in their natural habitat grow in quite open locations and some are native to very dry, sunny climates and prefer as much sun as possible (eg. H. argutifolius).

Ideally, most of the popular hybrids like the early season sun position under the canopy of deciduous trees. This provides maximum sunlight when in flower but some protection to the foliage in the heat of summer once the trees leaf out. Heavy shade is not at all to their liking.

Here’s another clump I have growing. The original was the yellow - I don’t know the variety. At the time, I had no idea they were actually producing seedlings, I just left it there and the clump slowly grew. Then I realized there was a pink variety working its way in there…then I began to notice there were seedlings and the pink maybe was coming from the new seedlings…you can see from the second photo the small up and coming seedlings…

I’m sorry that I did not follow up on this thread, but I was having trouble with my email account and I wasn’t getting notifications for awhile. It’s all fixed now and I’m just trying to catch up wtih threads I didn’t finish.

Rosaprimula, that’s a good idea to use annuals when you have a bed with seedlings that are not flowering. I’ve never tried Nigella, is that an early spring annual? Here we have late frosts and this year a few times in April temps were as low as 32F for a couple of nights. I end up covering some plants, so annuals need to be pretty comfortable with these weather fluctuations. Here pansies often do the trick with a light covering on nights that the temps are that low. I remember there are other annuals that are good in cool weather, although their name escapes me at the moment. I’ll try to remember using them for that application next time I start from seed.

‘Water the best fertilizer’ that is so true! We are supposed to get most of our rain in the spring. ‘April showers bring May flowers’. Although we've had a couple of seasons about 3-5 years ago where that was not true at all, it used to be rare, not to have enough water until June. This year we are above our average rainfall by about 8 inches. And yes, I am really noticing the difference. The Hellebores in my garden finally look like they have put on some size. Has to be all the rain we’ve had.

Mad Gallica, I do notice that those that are in more sun are doing the best. Seedlings approaching weed status…wow, amazing how different our experiences are. Your Hellebores must be very happy there.

LaLennnoxa, that’s a very pretty Hellebore. It has pink and white not on the same plant but as a collection of seedlings looks like. I’m going to have to look more closely under the main plant for seedlings. The flowers are a nice size.

Finally all the new foliage has opened on mine. I think this one is 'Dashing Groom' from the wedding series. That's only 2 years old.

This one is 'Dorothy's Dawn'. It's also only 2 years old, but I bought it as a gallon size.

Maybe you can see the foliage is variegated. It gets more pronounced as the season continues.

'Golden Lotus', a Terra Nova plug

'Mellow Yellow' has been in this position since 2009 and this is the first year it has looked this full. It gets direct morning sun, but is under the dripline of a large Maple and is in shade the rest of the day.

Flowers mostly done, and now the foliage is completely covering the bed. This is mostly seedlings filling in from a few original plants.

IndianaGGirl - Wow, that makes such an effective ground cover. I don't get anything like that at all. And mine are still flowering and if I remember right, the flowers stay on the plant and visible for a long time.

Do you mulch around them? I seem to always mulch my beds to keep the weeds down. Either chopped leaves or bark mulch. I do see seedlings, but they don't seem to amount to anything. I've often thought I might try to pot them up and replant them to get the increase I am looking for. Thanks for posting that photo. Eye opening.

I do mulch around them every couple of years, as there are holes here and there. But yes, a very effective ground cover for me. This is squarely in the root zone of an old silver maple. I just let the seedlings be, as it can be difficult to get a plant ’started’ amongst the roots.