Should I cut the old leaves off my hellebores?

This is one of the few genuinely worthwhile winter jobs in an ornamental garden. Hellebore flowers appear low down among a mass of old leaves that are usually tatty, blotched and lying flat by midwinter, and those leaves also carry the fungal spores that reinfect the plant. Removing them takes ten minutes per plant and transforms both the appearance and the health of the planting.

Safety

What you'll need

• Secateurs or snips
• Gloves
• Bag or bucket for the foliage
• Kneeler (optional)

Step by step

1. Identify which kind of hellebore you have.The stemless kinds — Helleborus x hybridus, the Lenten rose, and Helleborus niger, the Christmas rose — produce leaves and flower stems separately from ground level. These are the ones you cut. The stemmed kinds, Helleborus foetidus and argutifolius, carry leaves and flowers on the same stem, and cutting the leaves removes the flowers.
2. Do it in December or January.Before the flower buds push up. Cutting later risks slicing through emerging flower stems, and cutting much earlier removes leaves that are still working.
3. Cut every old leaf right down at the base.Not halfway — take each leaf stalk off as close to the crown as you can without damaging it. Wear gloves; the sap irritates skin.
4. Take everything away and bin it.Hellebore leaf spot overwinters on the old foliage and on debris around the plant, so removing it from the garden is the whole point of the exercise. Do not compost it and do not leave it lying.
5. Clear the debris around the crown as well.Rake out fallen leaves and old flower stems from the previous year. Anything lying on the crown holds moisture and spores.
6. Mulch around the plant with compost or leafmould.Keep it clear of the crown itself. Hellebores are woodland plants and appreciate leafy soil, and mulching after clearing also covers any spores left on the soil surface.
7. Feed in late winter.A general fertiliser or a compost mulch as the flowers appear. Hellebores are not demanding but respond to it, and the plant is about to flower and then make a whole new set of leaves.
8. Leave the flowers to fade on the plant if you want seedlings.Hellebore x hybridus self-seeds generously and the seedlings are variable and interesting. If you do not want dozens of them, cut the flower stems off before the seed ripens in late spring.
9. Remove any spotted new leaves through the year.Black or brown blotches with a dark margin on the new foliage is hellebore leaf spot. Pick off and bin affected leaves as you see them, which keeps the infection level down.
10. Do not cut the stemmed species.On Helleborus foetidus and argutifolius, remove only the whole stems that have finished flowering, cutting them at ground level after the flowers fade. Cutting the leaves off a live stem removes that stem's flowers.

Tips

• The flowers of Lenten roses face downwards, which is why removing the leaves matters so much — you can actually see them once the foliage has gone.
• Hellebore leaf spot is very common and rarely fatal. The annual leaf removal is the main control and is far more effective than anything sprayed on.
• Self-sown hellebore seedlings take three or four years to flower and are almost never identical to the parent. Move them while small, and be prepared to discard the poor ones.
• Cut hellebore flowers wilt quickly in a vase unless the stem ends are seared or slit. Floating the flower heads in a shallow bowl works far better.

Common mistakes

• Cutting the leaves off Helleborus foetidus or argutifolius — Those species carry leaves and flowers on the same stem. Removing the leaves removes the flowering stem.
• Leaving the cut foliage lying under the plant — It is the spore reservoir you were trying to remove. Bag it and bin it.
• Leaving it until February — The flower stems are coming up by then and are very easy to cut through by accident.
• Handling large amounts without gloves — The sap irritates skin and causes a rash in many people. Gloves and hand washing afterwards.

Questions people ask