I have two hellebores that are in their second year next to my front door. I cut them back in late March and they have put out masses of glorious flowers and leaves -- only to get what was a bad aphid infestation which I carefully hosed off about 2 weeks ago...now 2 weeks later there are twice as many aphids, literally covering the stems and backs of leaves. There is also (I assume not coincidentally) quite a bit of the sticky "condensation" on many of the leaves, and all in all its just a sad thing. As much as it would break my heart to cut the flowers off, I don't know what else to do. I really don't have the time these days to do aphid patrol as often as it appears I would need to keep these plants nice.

Any suggestions at all would be very appreciated.