Hellebores - Christmas Lenten Roses
Hellebores are winter blooming evergreen perennials! They love shade in the summer and sun in the winter, so under a tree is a perfect spot to plant them! They are tough as nails, grow in almost full sun to deep shade. They bloom in the winter time from Christmas to Lent hence the name, but some species are earlier in December and January and people call them Christmas Rose while the normal orientalis based hybrids bloom more like March and April hence the name Lenten Rose, but we just lump them all into Christmas Lenten Roses!
Hellebores are deer and rabbit and animal resistant as the foliage and flowers are mildly inedible and will make the eater sick to their stomachs. Deer will nibble it to find out how it tastes so if you have a herd of deer after the 30th or 40th nibble it may appear as if deer eat them but deer do not eat Hellebores.
We have many new showy hybrids and some old fashioned solid performers!
Ranunculus is an ALPINE Perennial. Alpine means from the mountains, so Ranunculus are FROM THE MOUNTAINS. They are not only from the Mountains, they grow at high altitudes with low humidity and cool/cold nights and warm sunny days. They don't get too hot, and they don't get too cold. So while Ranunculus IS a perennial, and CAN be grown in our area (if we have a mild winter and a mild summer) in general they will suffer and not thrive and not survive for long term, they are FINICKY and they aren't really finicky, like many plants found in unique situations, they are adapted to their climate and surroundings. The conditions it likes are warm sunny dry days and cool/cold nights, under those conditions it will thrive and make lots of flowers.
Growing Ranunculus in our climate can be done very easily while conditions are right; February through May. Buy a lovely plant from us and pot it up into a larger pot. Make up a large watering can full of water soluble fertilizer (blue water) at 1/4 strength. Water every day or every other day with the light fertilized mix. Keep your plant OUTSIDE they want cold nights and real full sun. Cut the flowers daily, the more you cut the more they will make. Like this your plant will grow, prosper and thrive, and give you MANY cut flowers for the next month or two or three, while the weather is cool at night and not too hot during the day.
Once temperatures get hot outside, your Ranunculus will start to go dormant and the plant will slowly turn brown and disappear and the foliage energy will be transferred into the tuber which is the root. That tuber will remain dormant until fall if conditions are right for it to grow. If not it will return in spring when conditions are right for it to grow. If conditions are not right for it to grow, it will not grow. The conditions it likes are warm sunny dry days and cool/cold nights, under those conditions it will thrive and make lots of flowers.
Commercial Ranunculus growers do not re-use tubers they plant new tubers every year for the best flower production. They notice that plants after flowering heavily take some time to recover and it's not worth it to reuse them.
Ranunculus cut flower stems are very valuable and cost an arm and leg at a florist shop, due to their unique requirements. If you are able to cut and make one bouquet of 5 stems, you have more than paid for your plant, if that flower has value to you. One plant grown as we discussed should provide dozens if not a hundred flowers! So enjoy it while it's here and don't obsess over making it live and thrive forever! For that you should move to high altitude locations in Chile or Iran where it's native.
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