Crop Feature: Hellebores

Hellebores- the roses of spring! It’s almost their time, just a few more weeks and they’ll be here!

Hellebores are one of the toughest perennials that I know of. They like partial shade in our Southern climate. Nice thing is that they prefer the acidic soil that we have here. It’s nice to have a plant that I don’t have to worry too much about improving the soil before I plant it. Ours are mostly planted on hillsides so they get great drainage and nice shade from mature trees overhead. The trees drop their leaves in winter so they get the bright but shorter days of winter sun- that’s what they love!

They do take several years to flower. Seed grown varieties can take 4-5 years before you see a bloom. However we usually buy the plants in at the 2-3 year stage so we only have to wait about 2 years for first bloom. But they do need to mature for about 4 years from our initial planting until we really begin to see them pumping a lot of stems.

There are different types. Some bloom very early (during winter) and some not until mid Spring. We are working on finding the right early bloomers so we can expand the length of hellebore season. This will of course take a few years because of the maturation time but so far the trial is going well.

One of my favorite varieties from the early trials- this one produces huge flowers!

This year we will have lots of white, pink, plum and the beautiful pink and white variegated. Also we will have limited supply of a new pink variety from the plants we put in 2 years ago. Another year or two and those will be really giving out the stems. 2027 is going to be a big year for hellebores!!

Pre-orders for hellebores will be available in mid-late February!