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Old 13-11-2006, 08:55 PM posted to rec.gardens
madgardener madgardener is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 230
Default Moving a Hellebore

wrote:
madgardener wrote:
monkeyboy wrote:
Hiya,

This is my first post so please be gentle!! I have a Hellebore in the
garden but would like to move it to another place, have you got any
tips ? I.e. is now a good time of the year to do it ? Should i prune it
a bit first ? Any help appreciated...


ok, monkey boy, I'll be very gentle..........snip, whack....prune


Fascinating aspects of botanical behavior are the things plants get up
to when they haven't read the references. I'm not dismissing any of the
above advice but feel the need to relate how this species behaves here
in central North Tasmania.

ahhhh, central Northern Tasmania......I'm having a problem thinking
about the conversions of Fahrenheit versus Centigrade...sorry.....g
but you're absolutely right. Plants don't often read the reference
books and behave entirely different in assorted zones (my zone 7 means
that the temperatures average from 0o to 10o (-18o C to -12o C) but
there have been times that we've gotten as low as -29o C to - 23o C
during snaps, not too often, I saw it drop to -18o F one winter, but
that's been a LOOOOOONG time ago (early 80's) zone 6 averages about
-10o F to 0o F and I lived in zone 6b which was the warmer side of
six.......ummm, -23o C to -18o C for you) but having moved to Eastern
Tennessee 14 years ago and sitting on a ridge literally in front of the
Great Smokey Mountains, I'm in a sort of micro climate. more
importantly, here where I live, we have from 60 to 90 days of above 86o
F (30o C)
My hellobores behave like weeds. Every
spring thousands of seedlings pop up under the old plants, I dig em up
with little delicacy and drop them down in whatever semi shady space I
can find and by the following year I've got another patch. They a get
mid winter application of horse manure (not aged) after the first year
and thats it.

well, like I said, Hellebore LOVE and ADORE rich humus, and horse manure
is just to their tastes. I also don't pop the seedlings with much care.
but this is my first year that I have more than three or four
seedlings per plant. Last year was a wonderful year for fertilizations.
I hope to have enough to transplant down into the woods at later dates
and times. I've shared a few with a friend, of course, but most I'll
allow to grow underneath their mammy's skirts until I can prick them out
and move them around Fairy Holler. Monkey boy has never moved a
Hellebore. and he's moving a whole mature plant from my reckoning.
We have frosts here for weeks on end and nights get down to -7 C but
the soil only freezes down to 1/4 inch at most.

when winter really gets a toe hold here in Eastern TEnnessee, we can
freeze pretty deep, but never deeper than a foot....my basement is
underground on the south, east and western sides and the temperatures
are wonderful. no need for much heat or air in the winter and summers.
For soil to not freeze to around 1/4 inch would mean a warmer zone here.
And I'm still not sure what zone Monkeyboy is in, he/she? hasn't
answered back yet.
The soil is a fertile
basaltic loam that's well supplied with trace elements. Opium poppies
also thrive in this region being its major commercial crop.

ahhhh, I adore somniferum papaver! I adore them as FLOWERS. I can't get
seed of them, but my grand mammy used to grow the peony flowered double
pink opium poppies for decades. I used to have a couple of black opium
poppies, a double red, a single red, but the ground wasn't bare enough
for the seeds to germinate and establish. you have any seed to share
for simply flowers? I might have seed to something you would like to
sow to establish that isn't too hard to rip out and control. I have
Swamp sunflower which looks like oversized coreopsis and averages about
5-7 foot in height depending on the moisture and soil type. Around here
it's red clay, but I have amended black loam in raised beds, which
poppies and perennials hate, so over the last 11 years I've only top
dressed and allowed the beds to leech the over richness out. the
perennials and reseeders have forgiven me. The finches and tit mouse and
other small birds are feasting on the seed heads of all the Swamp
sunflowers now, I'll have a few volunteers next year to provide me with
late summer colors. Let me know. I'm serious about the poppy seeds. as
long as they're only flowers, and not a commercial crop......I'd need
fields, and I only have raised beds and like the flowers as they are,
not for medicinal or hallucinatory purposes.........lessee if Monkey boy
gets enough information from the two of us!
madgardener still up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking
English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36 where it
got down to 30o F last night and there was frost on the punkin'