Helleborus 2020

[WSGR]

Hope the photos show up

A veined anemone hellebore - quite tall and a double apricot

[WSGR]

Some of my hellebores in videos.

Missed some and some typo - taxing when you typed in white background with text colour set to white sometimes.

[Yann]

Great idea to produce videos

[WSGR]

Son downloaded Movie Maker and if a 63 year old woman can produce 2 videos, so can you, Yann!

[WSGR]

Forgot to say that the basic version is free. Just drag photos in the centre and choose animation and duration. Very easy. Best video maker so far!

[Fiona C]

Love to see the many pictures of hellebores. I have seedling hellebores beside mature plants. When is the best time to lift and move them to their own space?

[WSGR]

I am no expert. When they are strong enough to move or too congested, you can move them. They are very tough and you really don't need to worry too much transplanting them.  Just hold onto the leaves and not the roots. You could wait for the weather to warm up a bit if they are indoors in a tray. I never bother sowing them in a tray as I have millions of seedlings milling around. They self seed. I have improved clay soil and after 20 years of keeping them, they are like pests here and also they clump so quickly and take over! Some varieties like Lily even need staking! 

[Leena]

Hellebores are slowly starting to open their flowers also here, these are all grown from seeds from various sources.
The first picture is from a plant I grew from seeds called 'Early Purple', and it really was early, starting to show buds already in January, and what is best about it is that it has tolerated several periods of temperatures below freezing, and it still doesn't have any damage to the flowers. Also it's colour is difficult to photograph, it is not normal dark purple, but there is a reddish cast in the flowers, it is difficult to explain.
The second one is one of my oldest yellows, grown from Ashwood seeds.
Third one is 'Jade Tiger'-seeds, very nice except it has longer pedicels than the one I consider better.
Fourth is a pink double which is flowering now for the first time, and I like it a lot. Very nice clear colour and petals are in good order. There are small spots in the petals which don't show from this angle.
The last one is semidouble H.niger, which I grew from seed ex seeds. 

[WSGR]

You've done well. Hellebores can really bankrupt you - a plethora of colours, petal shapes, nectaries, ... That semidouble looks interesting!

[Leena]

Thank you. Now that I have sown every year some seeds (and some years a lot of seeds ), there is always something new starting to flower every year. The first five years were waiting, but now I can enjoy.

[Gabriela]

Hellebores are slowly starting to open their flowers also here, these are all grown from seeds from various sources.
The first picture is from a plant I grew from seeds called 'Early Purple', and it really was early, starting to show buds already in January, and what is best about it is that it has tolerated several periods of temperatures below freezing, and it still doesn't have any damage to the flowers. Also it's colour is difficult to photograph, it is not normal dark purple, but there is a reddish cast in the flowers, it is difficult to explain.
The second one is one of my oldest yellows, grown from Ashwood seeds.
Third one is 'Jade Tiger'-seeds, very nice except it has longer pedicels than the one I consider better.
Fourth is a pink double which is flowering now for the first time, and I like it a lot. Very nice clear colour and petals are in good order. There are small spots in the petals which don't show from this angle.
The last one is semidouble H.niger, which I grew from seed ex seeds. 

Interesting niger Leena. Mine is also flowering well this year due to an uneventful early spring. Next week it is getting cold but nothing too bad. As you know I had to take it easy with sowing Hellebores due to the lack of space but I look fwd to few new ones flowering this spring, I hope.
One H. purpurascens was the first to flower, now a large flowered purple is starting, also its 'brother' which looks more like torquatus which was one of the parents.




And I am starting to get fond on H. foetidus.

[WSGR]

I used to be very indifferent to H. foetidus. Now, I realise that it is a great partner to cross pollinate as its flowers are upright. I wouldn't buy them though. Every time I see them, I wish I had one. Actually, years ago, I did have one, but I killed it as it really was not my cup of tea!

I didn't do any cross pollinating this year as it rained non-stop!

[Leena]

My Hellebores last week.
First pictures of the old ones.

[Leena]

Some more

[Leena]

The next ones are flowering for the first time this year.