hellebore

Lovely. I have jjust chopped my ones down and they were full of greenfly. The sparrows have had a feast. Gerry dug the plants up and split them and I gave the extras away.

Did you chop them down before the leaves appeared? I still have a few flowers on this one but the leaves are now fully grown.

The leaves were dark green and waxy and the flowers were over so I just chopped them down and split them up. They were so full of greenfly thought it the best thing. I expect they will survive.

Goodness - please let me know if they do, if you remember! Looks like being a greenfly year - one of my gooseberries has been heavily attacked already - never happened before.

One of my Japanese Maples didn't want to send out it's leaves so we looked closely and it was absolutely full of browny green greenfly. We sprayed it and now it is a lot better.

I don't want to put insecticide on the Gooseberry thougn because the fruit has set. I've dunked all the branch ends in soapy water and am hoping it will have been effective. Lets hope this isn't going to be the year of the aphid! I hope you acer will bounce back smiling, they are lovely things. Can't grow them here as its too windy.