Hellebores

Hi, I have many hellebores which have finished flowering can i cut them right back to ground level, and will they recover if I do. They seem to have taken over, and I cannot dig them out, the roots seem really deep.

Thanks

 

Hi Rosie I have many hellebores and unless I want some seed or want them to self seed I always chop the dead flowers off and any old leaves after they have finished and they come back with a new flush of healthy leaves.

However I usually do this around May/early June, not sure what difference it would make chopping them back in August; I suspect very little, i would imagine they would re-grow some new leaves before the onset of winter? :thumb:

Hellebores can be dug up and split, but as you say they are deep rooted so you need to go deep, I have successfully moved and split established clumps and have never suffered any losses :thumb: