Marianne's Response

Identity?

Can you help me identify this lovely flower? I had this in a container with other part shade/shade plants. I have several plant tags and the only spare tag (besides a clematis) that I can’t attach to a plant is the tag for “Tricyrtis ‘Empress’”. However, the identifying information on that tag doesn’t really match this plant. The Tricyrtis is supposed to bloom in Fall with “large, orchid-like” blooms with glossy foliage, so I suspect that is not this plant. My plant has blooms on it right now (mid-March), on about 12-inch stems with minimal foliage mostly near the base of the plant. However, I am willing to concede that the growth may be leggy due to being in an over-crowded pot. Help, please.

Posted by Debbie Nighswonger on March 19, 2018

Marianne's Response

The photo you send is of a lovely double flowering hellebore. I am not sure which variety as there are not hundreds of different hellebores that range in color from deep purple to pale yellow and some have spot or stripes on the petals. Hellebores are shade loving perennials that bloom in winter and early spring. The plant tag of the "Tricyrtis Empress" is another shade loving perennial but it may be dormant at the moment as these fall blooming perennials die back each winter and don't emerge from the ground until the weather warms up a bit in the spring. Hellebores and Tricyrtis do well in large containers for a year or two but then you should transplant these hardy perennials into the ground so they can spread their roots. The hellebore may surprise you with thick and fleshy roots that have already filled up the pot.  Once established hellebores do not like to be moved or divided. Keep Growing, Marianne Binetti