Helleborus 2022

[Guff]

Helleborus thibetanus

[Yann]

It looks healthy it doesn't need power 

[Guff]

Yann, I had removed the wires before taking the picture.

Thibetanus seedlings

[Jeffnz]

Bonus to get seedlings, a 'group shot' for the future?

[Tomte]

I wish mine would look so healthy. Bloomed a month earlier and didn’t like being frozen for 2 weeks after having sprouted in our mild January weather.
It’s a superb plant when in flower though.

[Jeffnz]

I have found the species difficult if not impossible to maintain over successive years. Unlike most other helleborus this species does seem to need a narrow set of environmental conditions to thrive.
Have never seen an accurate description of the species natural environment, not helped by original the mode of entry to western gardens.

[arisaema]

I have found the species difficult if not impossible to maintain over successive years. Unlike most other helleborus this species does seem to need a narrow set of environmental conditions to thrive.
Have never seen an accurate description of the species natural environment, not helped by original the mode of entry to western gardens.

It thrives in both Scandinavia, the UK and East-Coast US, so I'm not sure I'd use the word "narrow"... I've seen it in the wild multiple times, always in heavy organic soils, in areas with plenty of spring/summer/autumn rain and rather cold winters.

[Diane Whitehead]

It thrives in both Scandinavia, the UK and East-Coast US. I've seen it in the wild multiple times, always in heavy organic soils, in areas with plenty of spring/summer/autumn rain and rather cold winters.

I've tried to grow it several times.   That explains why it doesn't grow in my West Coast garden.

Diane

[Diane Whitehead]

I'm interested in breeding a scented hellebore. 

I have a couple of Helleborus liguricus but they are faintly scented.  Maybe they would have a stronger scent if I had some winter sun to shine on them.

Does anyone have a distinctly scented hellebore?

Diane

[Jeffnz]

Hi Arisaema
Thanks for the growling conditions of thibetanus in its native habitat.
Is there winter snow cover?"

[arisaema]

Is there winter snow cover?

There is plenty of snow in Baoxing, but I'm not sure how stable the snow cover is... Sleet, snow and winter rain, the edge of the Tibetan plateau here in Sichuan gets an awful lot of precipitation year round; it's perhaps most similar to the climate in south-west Norway or north-west Scotland.

[Jeffnz]

Arisaema
Thx, this does suggest to me that maintenance of year rood moisture is the key factor. What about maximum temperatures during dormancy
My garden climate is wet wintrers, no snwo and very dry hot summers with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius.

[Jeffnz]

Does anyone continue to grow liguricus and checked if the flowers do have a scent?
If the answer is yes can seed be collected?
This wolud be what Diane is seeking.

[Diane Whitehead]

or does anyone live near the coast Liguria in northern Italy and could sniff the wild flowers and collect pollen from the best-scented ones?

Diane

[Guff]

Thinking next year, Thibetanus might put up two flowering stalks?

It's interesting, last year my other plant had 5 flowers. I found it bent over one day. Thinking a deer or another animal stepped on it. This year it looks to be just a single leaf coming up.