Plant a Hellebore in your garden and you will be hooked. Before too long, you will be searching for spots where you can have more of these Winter flowering beauties. Hellebores Harvington Pink Speckled is our latest find, and she is performing very well in a pot on our patio.

Growing Hellebores in pots

I would be hard pushed to think of a Winter flowering perennial that is as spectacular as Hellebores. This particular Hellebore blooms in late Winter, continuing to give a good show right through till late April.

There is a large range of Hellebores Harvington hybrids, see them all at twelve Nuns, I think you will be very impressed.

After reading an article stating Hellebores did not perform well in pots and not having border space for them, I simply gave them a miss.

How very wrong this information was. As you can see, Harvington Pink Speckled is doing very well indeed.

In our Aberdeen garden, we had plenty of room in the borders for Hellebores

Pot size

Aim for a pot size of about 35 cm diameter and height 33 cm. The proper method is to start them off in smaller pots and gradually work up to your full size pot as suggested.

I have to confess, I don’t do this. I buy my Hellebore in a 2 litre pot and plant directly in to this large pot. Doing it this way can lead to over watering and your young plant can die of being waterlogged.

I have worked out a regime with careful watering and good drainage, I always seem to get away with it. My magic tool is the Klux soil moisture tester, I have used it for 2 years now and it is a godsend.

If you want to err on the safe side, perhaps it is safest to go for the traditional way of repotting.

Use a good quality garden compost neutral to alkaline and good drainage.

Your Hellebore will like a semi shade position. When coming in to flower, you can safely place it where the plant gets a bit more sunshine.

Hellebores are thirsty plants, so make sure they do not dry out in the Summer.

In November place the tub in a sheltered position, against the house wall is good. When the flowers start to develop, place it back in your display position.

Quick glance details

Height

18 inches (0.46 m) spread – 18 inches

Hardiness

Fully hardy in UK

Leaves and flowers

The dark green leaves are semi evergreen and the flowers which bloom from late Winter through until the end of April are pale pink with dark red spots.

Soil

Any reasonable garden soil which is moist but free draining, neutral to alkaline

Position

Happy enough in full sun, but prefers partial shade.

Propagation

After a few years, if you feel the clumps are getting too large, lift and divide in early Spring.   Mulch in Autumn with garden compost or leaf mould.

Pruning

When the new leaf shoots are visible in Spring, you can cut back any old growth that has become unsightly, I usually remove the old flowers when they have completely gone over.

April in the courtyard

The highlight of the courtyard in April has to be the Amelanchier Lamarckii multi stem .