Honeymoon® Sandy Shores Lenten Rose

Size

With big blooms the color of apricots, Honeymoon Sandy Shores Lenten Rose (Helleborus hybrid) makes a subtle but colorful statement in the landscape. Once you meet a hellebore, you are likely to fall in love with their unique flowers, and the honeymoon will never be over with this pretty multicolored hybrid. Hardy in zones 4 through 9 and able to grow in most soil types, this is a versatile perennial for garden beds and containers. Sandy Shores can tolerate salt and periods of drought, so caring for the plant is easy. It grows upright to nearly 2 feet high and around, so it can fill a container or be planted in groups to create a low border or mass of rose and apricot-colored blooms. The flowers appear in spring against the backdrop of pretty green rose-like leaves and attract bees to the garden. Deer and rabbits avoid the plants. Honeymoon® Sandy Shores Lenten Rose Care Hellebores produce these pretty blooms in shady conditions, so be sure to place your Honeymoon Sandy Shores in at least partial shade, especially in warmer zones to protect it from hot afternoon sun. Choose just about any soil, but the plant prefers alkaline or neutral soil. Just be sure it drains well enough to prevent the area around the plants roots from becoming soggy. You can mulch around the hellebore after planting to help cool the soil and feed the roots, but be sure to keep the crown of the plant above the mulch, not buried in it. Organic mulch helps keep the soil rich, but you can add a granular, balanced fertilizer each spring. Although slightly drought tolerant, Lenten Rose needs average, regular watering. The soil can be slightly moist, but not soggy, so plan watering according to soil moisture. Otherwise, this is an easy-care plant. Just cut away old leaves as new growth begins to appear in late winter or early spring. Removing old growth is not critical, but gives new branches room to fill in. You can remove old flower stems as they fade in spring, and can even cut fresh ones to bring inside. Honeymoon® Sandy Shores Lenten Rose Spacing Fill a garden bed or container with Honeymoon Sandy Shores Lenten Rose for multicolored, apricot-tinted interest. Space hellebores about 18 to 24 inches apart from one center to another so each has room to fill out each spring.