Pine Knot Farms: Latest News

Testing... Testing...

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:30:16 +0000

If you’re new here, Hello! I’m new here too. We recently worked with a professional to help update our website and she explained quite a few things to us about websites and how things should be presented and updated (Thanks Alivia). One of the things Alivia encouraged us to do was to write a blog. The last blog post we published was back in March of 2016. That was before I came to Pine Knot so I’ll admit that I don’t know how all this works (or if it does). Since I started at Pine Knot in May of 2016 I’ve been told by customers that they signed up for our newsletter which the website has always had an option for. Since I’ve never known us to publish a newsletter I wasn't sure what folks were signing up for but my guess is that a “newsletter” subscription means you’ll get an email when I publish a “blog” post. This post, as the title suggests, is me testing how all of this works.

That being said, HELP! If you got this post in an email from us I’d love to hear about it. If you saw it linked on Facebook or Instagram let me know with a like or a comment. If I’m completely wrong about “newsletter” and “blog” being the same thing in my website’s eyes I’ll consult my local professional before I post another one of these.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re curious who the “I” and “Me” writing this is; my name is Bryan. I started working with Hellebores at Pine Knot Farms in 2016 and have been the owner since January of 2023. If you’ve been to any of our Annual Hellebore Festivals or Fall Open Houses or purchased plants from us at one of the Botanic Gardens we do sales at; you’ve likely met me. If you aren’t local enough to have seen us in person; I’m hoping that restarting this blog will give you a chance to get to know us.

I have some ideas for future blog posts but I am always open to suggestions. If there’s a Hellebore, nursery, or plant related topic you’d like to read my thoughts on; feel free to reach out.

- Bryan

Items Unavailable

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 18:43:05 +0000

We're in the process of updating our website. In the meantime, please note that the following items are no longer available.

Helleborus atrorubens both the 4" and qt pots
Helleborus dumetorum both the 4" and qt pots
Helleborus odorus both the 4" and qt pots
Helleborus purpurascens both the 4" and qt pots
Helleborus torquatus both the 4" and qt pots
Helleborus viridis both the 4" and qt pots
Helleborus multifidus x Helleborus x hybridus both the 4" and qt pots

Wishing You All a New Year Full of Hellebores

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 11:05:38 +0000

We have, on occasion, been accused of being "helleboring". The first instance was when we made one of our earliest trips to the UK with friends. Of the two couples one pair was very interested in hellebore, the the other pair, not so much. Since our trip was supposedly to visit nurseries specializing in Helleborus, we did see a lot for them, but evidently we also talked about little else. Our less interested friends had spent the better part of a week out in the cold, the rain and yes, even the sleet and snow, looking at hellebore plants. When we were in a pub for lunch or at the hotel at days end we talked about the hellebores we had seen. They had reached their limit.

When we are talking to folks at an away sale or when we are speaking, Dick and I try try to gauge a person's reactions. When the eyes begin to lose focus and wander around in someone's head, well, it's a pretty good sign that we are being helleboring. On the phone it's a bit harder to tell when a prospective customer has gone over the edge. People call us every day with questions. Many of these questions can't be answered in a three word statement.
So we have to try to determine the level of interest and answer accordingly.

To those of you whom we have overburdened with information, we ask to please forgive us. We do try to be reasonable, but it's rather like folks with an only child. They think everyone cares as much as they do.

Buyer beware (or Buyer understand)

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 09:22:33 +0000

Many of you may see hellebores like these being offered as loss leaders at grocery stores throughtout the country. These plants can be great value if treated properly. The main thing to remember is that although hellebores are hardy plants the plants being offered have been grown in a heated greenhouse and have not been exposed to freezing temperatures. You may plant them out in the garden now in California and warm southern regions but in other areas they must db hardened off just as one would small plants in early spring.

Also, beware advice from store clerks. A lady telephone us a couple of years ago to ask if I could help her figure out why here hellebores were turning yellow. Narrowing it down it turned out that the sales person told her to water the plant every day, never to let it dry out. So she had been doing the one thing guaranteed to kill hellebores, drowning them.

If you want to enjoy your plants inside it is best to keep them in a cool, brightly lit place, water them as the soil drys out. They can be acclimated to garden in spring, as it is probably too late in most areas of the country to get them rooted into your garden soil.

The photograph on the label shows the flowers of many of the new hellebores from Germany that are produced by tissue culture. While most of these plants are sterile, the plants we saw for sale are not. They are the actual Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger and if fertilized they will produce viable seed. The bees were certainly enjoying theses plants; an early Christmas gift.

New life for a loyal friend

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 06:38:58 +0000

This week Dick and I left our Old Gold Dodge Caravan at the Lake Country SPCA for them to sell our use as they choose. When this van reached 200,000 miles we felt perhaps it was not wise to use it for our frequent long trips. We kept the van thinking it might be nice to have two vehicles at some times and it was paid for already. But after spending almost two years just occupying space in the parking lot we decided to donate it. To NPR or to our local SPCA? The animals won. As much as I hate to five up our "Helebor" tag I think the shelter is worth it. Lake Country SPCA

We have a special fondness for LCSPCA as that's where our much loved Holly Dog started her life. Someone had ditched Holly's pregnant mom and she ended up in the shelter. Since it's a no kill shelter Holly and her 10 brothers and sisters were born there. We found her in the home of a Clarksville couple who had turned the lower level of their home into a puppy shelter. We were helping our daughter look for a pup for her kids for Christmas. Dick walked by one of the cages and this little black ball of fur came up to him and licked his fingers. He was smitten (and so was I) and we arranged to pick up our little girl and one of her brothers on Christmas Eve. Wonders of wonders, they found homes not only for the puppies, but for mom too!

Holly and her brother Buddy have given us all so much love in the last six years. It would be difficult to imagine our house without the dog and the cats running things. How else would we know that it was 5 pm without them telling us it was treat time?

Fall is the best time to plant Helleborus plants (in our opinion :})

Fri, 06 Nov 2015 07:54:12 +0000

As the leave begin to fall and the soil has cooled enough to feel good on my fingers I find those fingers itching to plant. Since what we grow are hellebore plants, that's often what I plant. (Nothing like cheap or free, eh?)

We get emails several times a week asking if we are still shipping, or if it is too late to plant hellebores. In our opionion, if you can still plant any herbaceous plant. tree or shrub; you can plant hellebores. Since these plants do not actively grow in warmer temperatures we feel fall planting is far superior to planting in April of May in warmer areas of the country. You poor folks in parts where the soil is frozen, you have my sympathy. But then you get snow and we don't so fair's fair.

Our customers ask why they can't find hellebores at their local garden centers in the fall. Of course I don't know why each GC buyer chooses their stock, but usually it's because they only think of plants "in season" and with hellebores as with most perennials, that means in flower.

Since we are a nursery and grow our plants, we have them to ship year round. Of course since plants grow and we are always potting on or dividing, not all plants are available at all times, but we do try to have as many as we can. I have included a photo that shows the sizes we ship.

Autumnal Inspirations at Pine Knot Farms

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 07:33:01 +0000

Autumnal Inspirations

Autumn is in full swing at Pine Knot Farms this week. We have not yet had a killing frost, but the trees are colouring nicely. One of the highlights of the garden at this time of year is our Acer japonicum Aconitifolium
We purchased this lovely plant as a tube from Forest Farm. Forest Farm Nursery It is not well over 12' tall and one of the highlights of our garden. Thank you Forest Farm people for providing so many wonderful plants.

Another "Watched For" plant in our garden is Galanthus reginae olgae 'Tile Barn Jamie' and it's cousins. We purchase our first bulb of this little lovely from Peter Moore at Tile Barn Cyclamen Nursery in the UK. The fact that it was said to produce two blooms per bulb was a nice feature, but we bought it because of the name. Our son in law James Tyler Walker, known as Jamie has a birthday on October 16 and almost every year Galanthus TBJ in in flower at the same time. I think of those two blooms as Jamie and our son Richard, growing together in love in the years to come.

NOT YET, PLEASE NOT YET!

Mon, 19 Oct 2015 15:24:57 +0000

When Dick and I went into town for our weekly grocery shop last week we could not believe our eyes. Christmas Stuff. Already. I know that each year the big box stores have to load their shelves with seasonal detritus to lure cusotmers into their store rathar than their competitor's store but, at least wait till after Halloween!

One thing about the coming of the holiday merchandise is that it forecast the advent of hellebore season. Snowdrops are beginning so it won't be long now.There are buds and even a few open blooms on the Helleborus niger.

A couple of things I would like to mention, a few of our best friends, John Lonsdale of Cyclamen fame has a great list at http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ and Melanie Ruckle of Putnum Hill Nursery http://putnamhillnursery.com/ has started doing mailorder sales. Our very best to both of these fine plants people.

Yellow Hellebores.

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 05:09:30 +0000

In a prior post I wrote about the greening of pale coloured hellebore flowers. This time I am writing about the yellowing of new hellebore foliage. As with the "green flower" calls in spring in autumn we get the "yellow foliage" calls. These usually come from growers who have purchased our Helleborus x hybridus Pine Knot Select single flowering hellebores or Helleborus x hybridus Pine Knot Southern Belles double flowering forms in the cell flats.

Every year as the plants begin to put on new foliage they can undergo a transient nutrient deficiency which is displayed as yellowing of the leaves. We have discussed this many times with various experts in plant nutrition. (Especially since we have an "in" with the North Carolina State Horticultural Science Department, Dr Helen Tyler Kraus Helen Tyler Kraus our much loved daughter.)

Apparently the plants are simply growing faster than they can suck up the available nutrients in the growing media. After a week or three the available nutrients will catch up with the growth rate and the foliage will begin to green up. This happens every year, so far we have never had a hellebore crop not turn green.

This is not to be confused with the yellow foliage on the yellow flowering plants like the O'Byrne's Helleborus x hybridus Golden Lotus or Golden Sunrise strain. These two seed strains are bred from plants that have a strong yellow pigment that not only produce yellow flowers but also is seen in the foliage. There are some plants that have yellow flowers with a red eye. On select plants there may be a flower with a red eye and the red can extend all the way down the petiole. A plant with red eyed yellow blooms that has red stems and yellow leaves is a very interesting plant. We pull most of these out to add to out own gardens, but each year we leave some to have on hand for the Hellebore Festivals. This provides a treat for loyal customers who come out to the farm each year and patiently look at each flower. ;)

Why are my hellebores green?

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 10:35:34 +0000

Every year, especially as summer sets in we get calls like this, people who have planted white or paler coloured flowering hellebore plants notice that their flowers are no longer white. As we speak I try to narrow the species of the hellebore in question down to species which actually open white. Even this can be confusing since many of the new interspecies hybrids have labels showing the flowers in various shades of pink or mauve and many people don't notice that these plants open white. Most people don't even know that these plants are very different from the Lenten Rose they think they bought.

I swear people think I am not telling them the truth when I tell them that this is a natural occurrence. Often I explain that rather like Hydrangeas, the flowers change colours as they mature, but then I sometimes get asked what they can put on the plant to make it stay white or their preferred colour.

With some people when I begin to explain that what we call hellebore "flowers" are actually sepals (or correctly, tepals) and will start to photosynthesize after it is fertilized I can see their eyes begin to glaze over. On the telephone there is that short period of dead silence that signifies total lack of comprehension. Rather like an automated call when you give an answer that is not in the program. It does not compute.

There are plenty of botanists on the web who can do a much better job in explaining why Helleborus sepals/tepals turn green. An excellent article that does so is titled Physiological and biochemical changes associated with flower development and senescence in so far unexplored Helleborus orientalis Lam. cv. Olympicus is. H. orientalis cv. Olympicus is the historic reference to the plants we call H. x hybridus. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3550562/

So please don't think I am lying to you. :)