Thank you everyone! I’ll get them in the ground and see how they go then!
They are so expensive to buy in garden centres I am assuming because they take so long to grow and flower? I know mine may end up muddy but I like experimenting & to see what I get.
Iagree with @Palustris The fact that they take such a long time to flower from seed does mean that the grower spends alot of time caring for them. Some of the very best are grown by John Massey at Ashwood Nurseries, They have always been expensive to purchase but a visit to his nursery when in flower is an amazing sight!
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
There are a number of Helleborus x orientalis seed strains that come true(ish). If you buy them in flower, you can select the best.
Hellebores are slow to develop to flowering size, so that even seed-grown plants in commerce are quite expensive. I have a colony of red and another of mixed whites, kept apart. My seedlings come in some interesting variations, plus some for the compost heap. I am now ready to start a mixed corner.
The best way to build a collection of hellebores is to cosy up to someone with a surplus of self-sown plants.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
My main plants came from Ashwoods. The seedlings grown on from them are also good. Not always true to the parent, but still good plants. You have to be heartless and rogue out any not up to scratch.
You can divide Hellebores and give some to friends but I wouldn't advise it. You can give away the best and end up with a plant that struggles. If they are doing well best to leave them alone. They can diminish over time and flowering can be poor. That is the time to buy another one or two maybe? The ones that have lived and flowered the longest in my garden are the expensive ones! Is there such a thing as a Helleboreaholic? If so I am one, they flower for weeks when there is little else to see .A friend tried for years to breed one with an up turned flower without success. I think they prefer to nod so that any rain drops fall to the ground.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Sadly the division of my upward facing one did not survive the move from our previous garden to here.
Division is quite easy though, as long as you do it at the right time. Hellebores make their new roots as the soil cools down, so September onwards is the best time to split them. I have done it on a regular basis for a long time.
And as for being a Hellebore addict, well, when I tell you it used to take over three weeks to cut them down in Spring, working every day, you can guess as to how many of them we used to have.
I bought a load from an expensive hellebore specialist here a year or two back. Some thrived, some didn't. But they are lovely things.
Monty showed some wonderful upwards-facing purple hellebores on the first episode of GW this year (or last possibly). Does anyone happen to know the variety?
Posts
Hellebores are slow to develop to flowering size, so that even seed-grown plants in commerce are quite expensive. I have a colony of red and another of mixed whites, kept apart. My seedlings come in some interesting variations, plus some for the compost heap. I am now ready to start a mixed corner.
The best way to build a collection of hellebores is to cosy up to someone with a surplus of self-sown plants.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Monty showed some wonderful upwards-facing purple hellebores on the first episode of GW this year (or last possibly). Does anyone happen to know the variety?