Pruning Perennial Hellebore

by Doug
(Somewhere in his garden)

When it comes to pruning perennials in the spring, here is a perfect example of how a garden changes shape and looks so much better.

Hellebore is one of those plants that is “evergreen” in warmer climates than mine. In mine, it might stay a bit green in a warm year but mostly it goes to a delightful shade of ugly-brown-dead.

I do not prune it in the fall as those leaves will stay green right through to snowfall (and anything green is good in the North). :-) In the spring, I clean away the dead foliage, pruning it down as far as I can, leaving only the green and growing plant.

You can see the difference in how the plant looks before I pruned and after.

This is all by way of saying that you can easily prune and clean up perennial plants in the early spring to make them look a heck of a lot better.

After this hellebore has finished blooming, it will produce another flush of leaves to thicken up and provide energy for the plant.

Don’t hesitate to prune perennial flowers and clean them up.