Looking for species hellebores

[Roberto G]

Hello to you all. I am a SRGC member from Italy and I am particularly interested in growing and breeding hellebores.
Could anyone help me finding species hellebore plants for sale / swap in the EU countries? Unfortunately Brexit made impossible to obtain these plants from UK nurseries or collectors. Thank you very much for help.
Roberto

[Jeffnz]

Hi Roberto
There are a number of hellebore species that are native to Italy. You may find the following link a useful guide.
https://thedrurys.com/services/latest-fact-sheets/70-hellebores-species-and-forms.
Wishing you a successful hunt, I can see how Brexit has impacted on your access To species plants from the UK.
jEFF

[Jeffnz]

https://www.postofficefarmnursery.com.au/
Hi Roberto
You could ask the above nursery if they wolud be prepared to supply you with seed, the nursery is located in Australia and dont usually sell , ttheir quailty is excellent, feel free to mention my name.
Jeff

[Roberto G]

Hi Jeff
Thank you very much for your suggestion! I will try and write them. I know that they grow beautiful hybrids, I am not sure if they have any species hellebores.
Roberto

[Kathy1987]

Hi Roberto,
Jelitto Seeds offers also seeds of some hellebore species, they’re located in Germany. Therefore it might be easier to get seeds without the risk of being confiscated by customs.

Best regards
Katharina

[Jeffnz]

While Jellito do offer hellebore species seeds there is no guarantee that they are freshly collected, fresh seed is the only way to guarantee a decent germination rate.

[Vinny 123]

There is "fresh" and there is "fresh". That said, I have had plenty of hybrid, and a few species, Hellebore seed from society seed distributions and Archibald, that has germinated freely, which will have been dry-stored for several months.

Presumably you are implying that some commercial suppliers keep stock for more than one year? I have never sown Hellebore seed that has been dry-stored for longer than several months so can't comment on longevity.

[Jeffnz]

A few months dry storage is not of concern as the seeds achieve full ripening after collection. I believe that viability may vary with the species. I did a trial with niger seed, planted the seed from the same pod within a week of collection and left seed at room conditions for 6 weeks then planted. The germination rate of the freshly collected seed was near 100%, this dropped to around 50% for the seed that had delayed sowing. Hybridus seed that has been sent to me from an offshore source never achieves anywhere near the germination rate of my own seed.
I am sure that seed companies will keep seed for an extended time, especially seed that does not sell quickly.
If seed arrives and appears desiccated and does not plump up after soaking in water this is a sure way to a low germination rate.

[Vinny 123]

Seed naturally never dries and never gets especially hot in most climates - it falls or is carried from the parent plant and that is it.
Some seed companies now give a collection date and some state that seed is never more than a year old - Chilter in the UK has always said so - in the rear of their catalogue they list (or listed) mixture of seeds as being unsold from the previous year/harvest.

Lots of people routinely store seed in the fridge, which will usually have a very high RH, which is probably a major help in maintaining viability.

[Roberto G]

Hi to you all. I think that the main problem with species hellebore seeds is not only their “freshness” but  their provenance.  Wild collected seeds are “true” to species while those collected in a garden/nursery could be the result of occasional/inadvertent hybridisation if  the flowers have not been hand pollinated and properly protected from contamination. Wild collected seeds are becoming extremely rare nowadays: years ago they were listed in botanic society seed lists or  made available by hellebore enthusiasts doing field research.

[Jeffnz]

Roberto
I agree with your comments.
However there are no collectors of wild hellebore seed, this has been the case since well before Covid. One of the reasons was that the return on seed sales did not cover the collection expenses.
If you get seed from a nursery that engages in hand pollination then this is the best chance of getting a true species off spring, however this does not give the natural variability of wild collected seed, the latter is one of the benefits of growing from wild collected seeds. Hellebores are promiscuous, and even in the wild there are natural hybrids occurring where 2 species habitats over lap.
Pre Covid there used to be hellebore tours, which offered tours to Balkan areas where the species were native to, Will McLewin who is a legend in the hellebore species world used to take the annual tours, Japanese growers appeared to be the main tour attendees, there were reports of the removal of plants along with seed, particularly of wild doubles.
Most of the Balkan species are red or purple and are only in part present in modern hybridus.
My experience with growing from wild collected seed is that it was a very frustrating undertaking, low germination rates and plants taking a long time to reach flowering, if at all.

[MarcR]

Roberto and Jeffnz,

While it is true that wild collectrd Hellebore seed is not commercially available, it sometimes appears on the garden society seed exchanges.  In my opinion, the best of thhese are:

the SRGC, AGS, and HPS (in the UK);  the PBS, NARGS, and HPS Mid Atlantic Group (in the US) and the Ontario Rock Gagden and Hardy Plant Society (in Canada) 

[Jeffnz]

Hi marc
While it may be available from a seed exchange it is more than likely open pollinated and hence no a pure species.
Many years back there were nursery plants labelled as Early Purple, purported to be a species. It turned out to be a hybrid. This is one danger of seed exchanges which applies across all the donated seed lines.

[MarcR]

Hi Jeff,

I was referring to Seed Exchange entries referenced as Wild collected with a location specified.

Even wild populationa are OP, and can [and sometimes do] form natural hybrids.

[Vinny 123]

People who donate to seed exchanges can get overethusiastic in their description/claims.

Not infrequently data provided is for the parent plant, not the seed. This is particularly obvious if growing plants that carry the same identity/label but are from different sources.