 |
Helleborus foetidus |
 |
| | Mid-november: flowers are starting to form |
| Common name |
stinking hellebore, bear's-paw hellebore |
| Family |
ranunculaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial (Z5-9) |
| Flowers |
green-white |
| Size |
2 ft |
| Light |
sun-part shade |
| Cultural notes |
ordinary garden soil (not too dry) |
Supposed to bloom winter through early spring, sometimes purple-margined greenish-white flowers over dark foliage. Ours don't reach full bloom until late April. We grew a few in our side garden several years ago, and were disappointed to see them disappear. To my surprise, two or three years later seedlings began to appear, in quite a wide radius around the original plants. So we're once again well supplied! Meanwhile, the side garden has become shadier, so the condition are actually better for growing this hellebore.
|
| | Looking none too shabby in January |
|
We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston. One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Helleborus foetidus
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Banana Joe | Feb 21, 2010 | I have these plants all throughout my gardens. I love them! |
| Pam | May 07, 2012 | I got this plant given to me by a friend a few years ago, maybe 3, here in NJ. She did not know what it was. Nothing ever happened, no flowers, hardly any growth. Wondered if it was a sort of Lupine, having the leaves similar. Then this year in February I got quite a few new sets of leaves and shoots and those strange green flowers on them. Now I know what it is. So different. Wonder if they bloom every year?? Thanks for helping to identify it. |
| woodyplants | Apr 12, 2013 | How do you maintain the Bear Paws? Are you supposed to cut off the flowers at a certain time or just let it die back? I have some plants that are huge and they flower all the time. Is there some type of cleanup necessary like with the other types of helleborus?
I'd be mainly concerned with appearance – when the flowers are no longer attractive, cut them back. Other than that, little maintenance is required. |
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an
ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including
html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
|
