Cutting Back Hellebores? HELP

[Stephanie Fleming]

Hi Stephanie, Hope you and family have managed during COVID. I am back to ask another garden question. You have been kind enough to be helpful in the past and I very much appreciate it. And it keeps my Behnkes connection going!

I have many many hellebores which thrive in my yard. We have to have some painting of our front entrance deck done next month and there are several of my oldest , largest and most beautiful hellebores right there. They will be trampled, and I’m not happy about this of course. Would you recommend cutting them down before painters come
( they have said we must cut back large acuba as they border the deck too but I know they will grow back) or just hoping the hellebores survive the abuse. I’ve thought about even digging out and replanting after the painting? But they are big. Thoughts? Thanks for any help. Regards, Brenda

[Stephanie Fleming]

From Larry Hurley

Options:

Let them work there and then clean up the damage. Trim back the area where they will be working and tell them to be careful. If it’s not soggy wet, you will probably come out okay.

or

They dig up pretty easily. What I have done in the past is dig them and just set them in a tarp, sometimes for months, and replanted. They aren’t particularly deeply rooted.

or

Cutting back is okay if you are cutting off the old foliage and the flowers. What you wouldn’t want to do is cut off the new growth coming up, since it only comes up in the spring.
So that depends on the timing. If I were still living in Maryland, I would go out and look at mine, but I’m not so I have to go from memory. I think that if you are doing it in mid-April, you will be okay but later would be bad.

I don’t see much point in doing the cutback. The old foliage will provide some protection to the crowns from tramping feet, and the foliage being up might make the painters more cautious of where they tred. They might make a path instead of tromping thru the whole area. And either way you are going to have to do some cleanup.

So I would go with either just telling them to be careful or digging them up. Or, a combo. Dig up a few clumps and let the rest of the area go.

Hope this helps
Stephanie

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