Cutting-back hellebores

The 'woodland' path earlier today.

Developing hellebore buds.

Cutting-off the old leaves of the hellebores, which I've been doing today, is an important winter task - it tidies up the plants, enabling emerging flowers to be seen easily and it is said to help control fungal disease, but there are two other important considerations. Firstly, big hellebore leaves are very smothering of smaller plants below them, and in wind they move around, flattening anything in their radius. In a garden like this, crammed with small bulbs betwen larger plants, that can be quite damaging. Secondly, while hidden under the protective layer of old leaves the buds are particularly vulnerable to being eaten by mice or voles. Removing the leaves denies them this shelter from predators (mostly owls here) and the buds are usually left unmolested thereafter.

When asked about defoliating hellebores, I usually say that it's a good job to do around Christmas, really just as a peg to hang the task to: you don't want to cut the leaves off too early, when the plant is still benefitting from them, or too late, when the new shoots are coming up and have to be carefully avoided. In most seasons Christmas is about the ideal time, but with the mild autumn and early winter there is too much movement in the garden to wait until then. The hellebore buds are developing, and snowdrop noses are emerging fast. In some corners here there are masses of Cyclamen coum seedlings under the hellebores, and these also need exposure to light. I try to snip the petioles as close to the base as possible, cutting them individually with secateurs. To reduce the risk - I hope - of transmitting the transmission of Helleborus net necrosis virus ("black death"), I wipe the secateur blades with methylated spirits between each plant. It may just be ju-ju and a waste of time, but one feels to be doing the right thing!

A swarm of Cyclamen coum seedlings  - an excellent reason to defoliate the hellebores above them..

The path later: hellebore leaves all gone and Galanthus plicatus 'Three Ships' visible.