GINA PARKINSON welcomes the green buds of early-flowering hellebores, and braves the rain for some emergency planting

SHINING through the dismal damp gloom in our gardens this week are the lime-green buds of early-flowering hellebores. These plants are useful evergreens with tough leathery leaves and flowers of varying shapes and sizes, and months of blooming according to the species.

Dotted about our garden are numerous seedlings of Hellebrous foetidus in various stages of maturity. Some are hardly noticeable, save for when accidentally uprooted in a moment of enthusiastic digging. These can be moved to a safer location and left to grow for two or three years. Others, perhaps the original plants, are much larger and ready to flower.

Hellebrous foetidus has palmate foliage divided into thin fingered leaves of deep dark green that are often serrated along the edge. Its neat upright growth makes it an excellent foil in summer for other plants, and for winter interest when everything else has died back.

In early winter it becomes more interesting.

Flower buds begin to form at the top of the stems, fattening as the weeks pass by and into February, when they begin to open.

Eventually the plant will carry several large, long-lasting open clusters of bright flowers that bridge the end of winter with the start of spring and all the flowers that season will give.

Helleborus foetidus is easy to grow and is especially useful in awkward areas of the garden, including dry shade. In these tricky patches it is a good idea to plant self-sown seedlings rather than fully grown mature plants, which may struggle to establish.

Seedlings can develop their root system to cope with the surroundings more easily.

Adding well-rotted compost to the planting mix will help to retain moisture and enrich the soil. Partial shade is the preferred aspect and annual mulching in spring will help keep the soil fertile and moist.

• Helleborus foetidus vital statistics

Common name: Stinking hellebore
Family: Ranunculaceae
Height and spread: Up to 80cm (32in) x 45cm (18in)
Form: Perennial, can be short-lived but will gently self-seed.
Soil: Moist, fertile and humus-rich
Aspect: Prefers partial shade
Hardiness: Fully hardy to frost hardy

Info: RHS

 

In the veg patch

IT IS time to clear the strawberry patch of weeds and unwanted runners.

Strawberries are hardy little plants and even now they will be already starting to show signs of new growth, especially in a sheltered spot.

Last autumn, I left the straw that had been placed around the fruiting plants in summer to act as winter mulch. This has now been removed, along with the weeds that had enjoyed its cover, and the soil underneath has been lightly turned over.

If the plants are only one or two years old, the runners can be cut away to allow the mother plant to put its energies into growing to full size and producing a good crop of fruit.

Some mature plants can be left with their runners and the babies along them allowed to root. By the time we get to mid spring they are likely to be large enough to remove, replant and grow on as replacements as older plants begin to fail.

 

Last week in our garden

THE forecast changed last week and instead of the dry Sunday morning that had been suggested, the day dawned damp, turning to torrential.

Unfortunately the rain had to be braved as plants dug up the previous weekend were still waiting to be replanted.

Left on a plastic sheet on the lawn, the poor things had dealt with frost and rain, so really needed to be back in the garden to get on with their spring thing. An hour-and-half or so saw the plants put into their new homes and the edges of a couple of beds redefined.

The grass from a lawn is very invasive and will send out long runners in a bid to take over new areas if allowed.

February is a good time to push a sharp spade along the edges to neaten it off. The unwanted grass can be pulled up easily.

 

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis. Out and about in Yorkshires countryside and gardens.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Anne Swithinbank, Bob Flowerdew and Bunny Guinness answer questions from local gardeners at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton Derbyshire. The chairman is Eric Robson.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chairman Eric Robson and panellists Matthew Wilson, Christine Walkden and Matthew Biggs are in Wales where they advise the audience at Hercules Hall in Portmeirion, Gwynedd.