Honeymoon® New York Night Lenten Rose

Light Needs

Full Shade to Partial Shade

(0 - 4 Hours Of Direct Sunlight)

Mature Height

1.5-2 Feet

Mature Spread

1.5-2 Feet

Growing Zones

4 to 9

Hellebores, the Lenten Rose...a gardener's delight in late winter, early spring when no other self respecting flower dares to bloom. Honeymoon New York Night Lenten Rose is one of 10 Hellebores offered in the Honeymoon series and features a dark purple, almost black sepals with a bright yellow center. Most hellebores bear their flowers at or slightly under their leaves. Honeymoon New York Nights and other hybrids of H. orientalis carry their flowers above the foliage. The flowers nod from curved stems, facing less toward the ground than other varieties.

Hellebores are native to Southern Europe where they grow in the dry climates of Turkey and Greece. Honeymoon New York Night is hardy in Zones 4 to 9, giving United States gardeners free reign in every growing climate but the most extreme cold and heat. They are typically an early spring bloomer rather than a winter bloomer. Lenten Roses will typically bloom the same season as planted when they are put in as a transplant, and will bloom the second year when started by seed.

Honeymoon® New York Night Lenten Rose Care

Hellebores are in the top ten of easy care perennials. Once you have located them in part shade to full shade, maximum of four hours of direct sun, and given them consistently moist reasonably fertile soil to get them established, you have little else to do but appreciate their showy beauty. Although they do best on average to fertile soil, with an alkaline to neutral soil pH 6.5 to 8.0, they tolerate some variation from the ideal. A light mulch of organic compost should be all that is needed for fertilizer unless your soil is unusually poor, then amend it with the same fertilizer prior to planting. Water when dry, although once established they are tolerant of some drought conditions.

Deadheading is not required and pruning is not necessary for general plant health. The sepals, the petal like parts of the flower, will gradually turn brown when the summer heat builds, and they will remain on the plant well into the fall, turning completely brown. If you don’t care to see them, cut them off to the ground and enjoy the foliage the rest of the season. Use care when disturbing the plants once they are in the ground. These are slow growers and will resent being disturbed and may not rebound as quickly to root division as some more vigorous perennials can. All parts of Hellebore are poisonous to humans and animals. Deer and rabbits won’t browse on them.

Honeymoon® New York Night Lenten Rose Spacing

Spacing is important with hellebores to help maintain proper plant health. Honeymoon New York Night grows to 24 inches tall and wide, so allow 16 to 24 inches of spacing between plants. They make excellent understory plants for deciduous trees, appreciating the shade in the summer and thriving in the sun during the winter months when the tree leaves are gone. Hosta plants need the same type of habitat as Hellebores and make great companion plants to them. Plant Honeymoon New York Night as a landscape border, at a woodland edge, under a tree or on the shady side of a home or structure for a great presentation.