Nice day today, worked on the hellebores. Usually, I’d do this in early April, but this weather. I’d ordered some new hellebores from Etsy, and they seem nice and healthy. Some are definitely bigger than others, but they all seem fine, from HostaKing (search for ‘Lenten rose’):
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HostaKing
I also dug up and moved a bunch of hellebores. A few years ago, I’d tried spotting around various areas of the garden, and it was nice having early flowers all over, but the ones under the redbud definitely seemed happier than the ones in my sunny parkway. So I dug up and moved several, so now there’s much more of a hellebore haven under the redbud, and I’m happy with that. It’s pretty heavy shade, now that the tree is mature, and the hellebores thrive there — when they’re done blooming, they’ll make a nice backdrop of green leaves for the rest of the year.
One of the ones I was moving (that I happened to have left the tag in, Onyx Odyssey), was pretty big. So I went ahead and hacked off a clump of it. It’s better to do that when the plant isn’t in bloom — when it’s replanted, the flowers will likely droop and look pretty sad for the season. You might want to even cut them off. But I know if I wait for the ideal time to divide the hellebores, I’ll never get to it — I’ll be on to other garden plants by then.
I’m going to give the division away in the local garden club group. With luck, I’ll convert someone new to hellebore passion.