Has my hellebore gone?
 

Hi

Last year we had a lovely mature purple hellebore growing amongst the
snowdrops during the winter months and well into the spring, its leaves
remained until late summer when I cut off the old brown/yellowing ones.
However, when I checked recently, there seems to be no sign now of new
green leaves growing - I can't see any evidence of it growing back, and
it should surely be growing by now.

Any ideas - could it have died from something? I thought hellebores
were pretty tough and didn't suffer too much from pests or diseases.

Lynda

Has my hellebore gone?
 

The message
from Lynda Thornton contains these words:

Hi

Last year we had a lovely mature purple hellebore growing amongst the
snowdrops during the winter months and well into the spring, its leaves
remained until late summer when I cut off the old brown/yellowing ones.
However, when I checked recently, there seems to be no sign now of new
green leaves growing - I can't see any evidence of it growing back, and
it should surely be growing by now.

Well, I doubt you had snowdrops out before January, so be
patient..it's a tad early for hellebores yet. I'm in a very mild area
and only one or two of the hellebores are showing the first signs of
new flower buds atm (at ground level). The new leaves don't appear
until next spring, after any flower buds open. If you have any home
made compost or old, well rotted manure, now would be a good time to
mulch round the plants. They are greedy feeders and like a humusy soil.

Janet

Has my hellebore gone?
 

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes
The message
from Lynda Thornton contains these words:

Hi

Last year we had a lovely mature purple hellebore growing amongst the
snowdrops during the winter months and well into the spring, its leaves
remained until late summer when I cut off the old brown/yellowing ones.
However, when I checked recently, there seems to be no sign now of new
green leaves growing - I can't see any evidence of it growing back, and
it should surely be growing by now.

Well, I doubt you had snowdrops out before January, so be
patient..it's a tad early for hellebores yet. I'm in a very mild area
and only one or two of the hellebores are showing the first signs of
new flower buds atm (at ground level). The new leaves don't appear
until next spring, after any flower buds open. If you have any home
made compost or old, well rotted manure, now would be a good time to
mulch round the plants. They are greedy feeders and like a humusy soil.

Janet

Hi Janet

Thanks for the reply - I have re-checked where the hellebore should be
and indeed underneath some leaves and overgrown alpine strawberry
runners, straying heath or heather fronds and other things I found a
small cluster of flower buds just above soil level - so I was very
pleased about that! I had forgotten when the leaves appear, I have some
stinking hellebores too but they grow new leaves much sooner and are
already clumping up nicely and it made me wonder about the other one.

Thanks again :)

Lynda