Fertilizing Christmas roses: 16 effective fertilizers and home remedies

It is its flowering time that makes a Christmas rose a very special plant. Sometime between December and February the flowers can be seen, when all the other perennials capitulate to the cold. Which nutrients give you the strength to enjoy the winter so much? Read here what the ideal soil for the Christmas rose is like and how you can enhance it with fertilizer.

Outdoor resident despite the freezing cold

The Christmas rose is an outdoor resident through and through, even if it is often brought into the house in a bucket during the Christmas season. Her blooming sight in the middle of winter is too seductive. But they do not tolerate the heating air very well, which is why they should only stay indoors for a limited period of time. A quick move to the bed is to be hoped from the bottom of my heart. A place that can be seen from the windowsill makes the pain of separation easier.

A perennial with a long lifespan
The ‘Helleborus niger’, as the botanical name of the Christmas rose is, is a very long-lived perennial from the buttercup family. It can boast a proud lifespan of 30 years. Whether in a tub or in a bed, it will need a lot of nutrients for its flowers during its long lifespan. The question of fertilization is definitely justified and receives a surprising answer.

A good location is “almost” enough for her

The Christmas rose actually manages to bloom diligently for life without receiving a single extra fertilization. How can that be? The right location, the optimal condition of the soil and the annual cycle of nature are sufficient for it to develop tirelessly. If you take her requirements into account in this regard, you will have little or no work with fertilizer. You can still pamper them every now and then, but in moderation.

Do everything right when planting out

The foundation for a nutrient-saturated life for Christmas roses is laid when they are planted out. Your bed should look like this:

  • fumes
  • permeable
  • lehmig
  • and calcareous

The Christmas roses are wonderfully supplied with such a soil, but the location also needs to be well chosen. In particular, being close to other plant-based gardeners can prove beneficial.

  • a partially shaded location is ideal
  • mostly in the vicinity of shady trees

As a third dowry, they can be given a good portion of nutrients when they are planted by enriching the excavation with compost, horn shavings or lime.

Leave the leaves lying around

Just let the wonderful cycle of nature take care of the Christmas roses. If they grow under deciduous trees, they should be left with the fallen leaves in autumn. They are gradually broken down by soil organisms and their nutrients are supplied to the earth. The Christmas roses that have their roots in it also benefit from this.

Help a little and mulch

If the next deciduous tree is a little further away, the gardener can bring his hand into play here and help. Even specifically spread mulch material is gratefully accepted by soil organisms and diligently decomposed for the Christmas rose. The following plant material is well suited:

  • leaves
  • Lawn cut
  • Rindenmulch
Tip:  The Christmas roses are poisonous plants, which is why gloves are required for all maintenance work.

Occasionally fertilize

Other plants are not as humble as the Christmas roses, so spring fertilizing with organic fertilizer is something of a mandatory activity for any gardener. The Christmas roses can also be fertilized, which hardly requires any additional work.

Suitable fertilizers for the Christmas roses

Snow lily or hellebore, as this winter flower is also called, does not require any fertilizer. If you fertilize them, however, it should by no means be a commercially available mineral fertilizer, as it does not suit your needs. However, you can freely choose from some organic fertilizers:

  • Compost
  • Hornspäne
  • Composted cow or horse manure
  • Rock flour
  • Herbal manure

Recognizing and remedying a lack of lime
If the Christmas rose is busy sprouting leaves but holding back the flowers, this is a clear indication of a lack of lime. This is not infrequently the case when it grows under conifers. However, a non-alkaline soil can easily be enriched with lime by adding the following:

  • Lime from the garden center
  • Muschelkalk
  • tableware
Tip: In this case, calcareous tap  water is also ideal as irrigation water.

Home remedies that are good for the Christmas roses

Many home remedies are most welcome to the plants in terms of nutrients. The lime-loving Christmas rose could particularly benefit from eggshells, because this home remedy is very chalky. To do this, two to three eggshells are chopped up as finely as possible and placed in the watering water.

Other home remedies that can replace organic fertilizers include coffee grounds, tea grounds, and potato water. They are ideal as fertilizer for potted plants. However, since the Christmas roses get along well with little fertilizer, restraint is called for when fertilizing them.

Fingernails and toenails are another home remedy whose fertilizing effect is comparable to that of horn shavings. The modest amount of this home remedy could only be enough for an equally modest Christmas rose.

Fertilizing Christmas roses in a tub
If the Christmas rose is only supposed to decorate the house for one winter before moving further outside, there is no need to fertilize it. The potting soil is already so rich in nutrients that it can make ends meet for a whole year. If it has to stay longer in the bucket, it should be fertilized with an organic fertilizer twice a year. The following applies to the first fertilization:

  • fertilize before the end of their flowering period
  • around February or March
  • when the new leaves sprout
  • ideally combine with leaf cutting
  • the fertilizer can then be better worked into the soil

The second fertilization follows in midsummer, when the Christmas rose forms new roots. These need sufficient nutrients to later supply the flowers with them

Skimpy
on the amount of fertilizer It is better to be cautious about the dosage of the fertilizer than to be generous in a well-intentioned manner. The Christmas rose has modest demands, an oversupply can have a rather negative effect.

Conclusion
A Christmas rose that also finds the ideal soil conditions in its preferred location could do without extra fertilizers for decades. Nature itself provides new nutrients through rotting leaves, but the gardener may occasionally donate some organic fertilizer or lime. So cared for, it blooms tirelessly in its wintry season.

Kira Bellingham

I'm a homes writer and editor with more than 20 years' experience in publishing. I have worked across many titles, including Ideal Home and, of course, Homes & Gardens. My day job is as Chief Group Sub Editor across the homes and interiors titles in the group. This has given me broad experience in interiors advice on just about every subject. I'm obsessed with interiors and delighted to be part of the Homes & Gardens team.

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