Hellebores 2010

[johngennard]

Here are some pics.of H.thibetanus showing the variance in leaf and flower.I have three plants growing in 5ltr.pots and I bring them inside only to flower so that I can enjoy their exquistely delicasy unblemished by the weather.My preference is for the deeply veined flower but in spite of tickling as one forumist put it I have been unsuccessful in raising any seedlings.I have managed to obtain seed although not a lot and I have managed to germinate them but I have never managed to keep them after pricking out even when I have left them in the seed pot until the second year.
Has anyone had the same problem ?

[johngennard]

and finally

[Ulla Hansson]

They grow very slowly in a pot. I have my plant in the garden, and seedlings that grow around it, is growing faster.
Ulla

[Diane Whitehead]

I think thibetanus is lucky to reproduce itself.  

It doesn't produce many seeds - it has only two seed compartments
instead of the three that other hellebore species have.

One year I hand-pollinated six flowers.  One set a pod,
and it had only four seeds.  I sent them to a friend,
so I don't know how they fared.

However, in the summer of 2008, someone sent me 15 fresh seeds
which I sowed immediately.  If they had been one of the other
species, they would have germinated in the winter.  None germinated
 (by which I mean a radicle emerged) until the following summer (2009).
This week one leaf has appeared.

I will not be getting 15 plants.  By the time the first seed
germinated, there were only 8 seeds remaining.  I suspect
I will have only one plant.

[mark smyth]

Are these Hellebore seeds?

[arilnut]

Yup sure are Mark. I get several every year

John B

Are these Hellebore seeds?

[chris]

here 4 different H.thibetanus raised from seed, the alba form came from a cross with 2 pale pink ones,
I selfpollinate the alba form but all the 7 seedlings where pale pink

[David Nicholson]

Lovely pictures John and Chris.

[fleurbleue]

Very nice forms 

[maggiepie]

Beautiful pics and plants, John and Chris.
I wish they could grow in my zone. 

[Lori S.]

I wish they could grow in my zone. 

Is it just that species that is not hardy for you, Helen?

[maggiepie]

Lori, Orientalis hybrids seem to be fine here and argutifolia has been ok the past two winters.
H. odorus seedlings wintered last year and I think one H. sternii.
Those are the only ones I have tried so far although I have some x sternii, 'Boughton Beauty' seedlings wintering outside at the moment, it will be interesting to see if any of those make it.

From what I can gather thibetanus is hardy to zone 7 or 8.

[Lori S.]

Wow, sounds like you have a nice collection, Helen!  

From what I can gather thibetanus is hardy to zone 7 or 8.

I'm always skeptical about purported zone ratings (until I've killed it a few times myself  ))  Dave's Garden claims it to be zone 5, but without any person actually claiming to be growing there, so it's unclear what to make of that.  Fraser's site lowers it to 6, at least.
Fraser's site also claims that H. cyclophyllus i is zone 7, but I had one winter over last year... if it was REALLY zone 7, it's hard to imagine it lasting through even one winter (even with the snow cover we had last year).  It will be interesting to see if it comes up this spring, of course.
Other than that, I just have H. orientalis, H. 'Red Mountain', and 1 or 2 other species on trial - they are not such spectacular plants here!
http://www.thimblefarms.com/hellebore.html

[johnw]

Lori, Orientalis hybrids seem to be fine here and argutifolia has been ok the past two winters.
H. odorus seedlings wintered last year and I think one H. sternii.
Those are the only ones I have tried so far although I have some x sternii, 'Boughton Beauty' seedlings wintering outside at the moment, it will be interesting to see if any of those make it.

From what I can gather thibetanus is hardy to zone 7 or 8.

Helen - It must be your snow cover that protects x sternii from the cold as it won't tolerate snowlessness + the cold we sometimes get. Some x sternii will winter here if carefully placed and the same for argutifolius which is the hardier parent in the x sternii cross. My argutifolius is near to the greenhouse but it can get badly burnt in snowless winters + temps around -16-ish especially if the ground has been frozen for a long time.  It certainly doesn't like to be free-standing and wind-whipped but then again neither does the bit hardier foetidus.  Ivory Prince is worth a try too and commonly available.

I'd guess most of the deciduous species except those notorious difficult ones like versicarius should be no problem for you.  H. thibetanus seems to be fine here in several gardens but my guess is it would not be very forgiving if there were a late freeze (and it starts up early). I don't know why I say that, guess because it looks a bit more fragile than x hybridus.  You should try it.   I bet the Hellebores love your soil on that coast.

As mentioned before every thibetanus I've had succombed to virus, black death or otherwise.  I now have a batch of seeds from TonyW that I hope will remeady that situation.

Shot - A few purple x hybridus we grew from seed ex a friend (a real character if ever there was one) in Devon who specialized in blacks years ago; growing at a friend's here.

johnw  

[johnw]

Lovely pictures John and Chris.

I second that and a real-opener.  The potential of this species!  The only ones I have seen had washed out pink flowers that had little or no texture and subject to rain damage, they always had that look about them, as if they had been frozen the night before.

Bravo fellows.

johnw