sounds like your Dad's hellebore might be a Corsican one or maybe the native "stinking hellebore" ?
in which case, they don't need scalping and should have lots of offspring for you to "acquire"! they can get quite leggy, especially once the flower stalk has gone over. I chop the faded flowers off for that reason - I don't particularly want more. Good for an awkward shady spot.
Winter flowers...... agree with Nut, cyclamen are great - hederifolium flowering now (and you can get varieties with lovely silver patterns on the leaves as well as lovely flowers), c.coum will flower in January. Stick them under deciduous trees or shrubs and they will do their thing and go dormant over summer. They will also self seed once established, so you get colonies of them over time. I have legions of "babies" popping up!
Could your mystery plant be a liriope? there are lots of things it could be but "strappy leaves" made me think of it - it does flower- in late summer, I think
While visiting a little nursery out amongst the Norfolk Broads last spring I succumbed to temptation and bought a Helleborus x hybridus Mandela - If I remember correctly it cost an arm and a leg!!! I can find very little about it on the web other than this snippet
"Helleborus×hybridus' Mandela' HYBRID LENTEN ROSE Selfs from a mother plant that produces nicely shaped, rounded flowers of 'black/burgundy with nicely overlapping petals held well above the foliage."
I'm so looking forward to seeing it bloom again
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't know the names of mine (note to self - keep notes). I have a black one, a yellowy/green one, a well-established clump of purply pink ones, a double red, speckledy pink and speckledy white! plus lots of their varied offspring which should flower in spring. Looking forward to seeing what comes up and seeing any new colours. I must stay away from garden centres when they are in season. I can't resist them
Verdun, have you ever bought those bare root ones from Hayloft.
I am not sure of the exact time i bought these, but I didnt start my garden until august2011, the previous photo is the result of one of those bare roots. That was taken in last seasons flowering..i think I bought them then, they flowered like that the following year, 2012/13.
I know you can buy large plants for instant colour, Heligan have a lovely selection, and Hellebore week, but for me, gardening is about growing them from little plants, seeds, cuttings etc.bringing them on and planting out, for me, thats gardening
I very rarely buy a big plant and plonk it in.I am more the Carl Klien sort of gardener. Beg, steal and borrow.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Lyn - i have tried the Hayloft plugs - they have made great healthy plants, but i have had to wait 2 years for flowers. In the meantime i bought a couple of already blooming ones to tide me over (and curb my impatience). Have to say the plugs ultimately seem to make better plants for me - but i have only ever used GC for the full grown ones, not a specialist nursery.
know what you mean about nurturing the little ones though - gives a great sense of satisfaction
I understamd whar Verdun is saying. I grow hundreds of Hellebores from seed each year and eventually throw most of them on the compost heap as they are not good enough or are exactly the same as ones I have.
I do the same with Geum too.
In a way it depends on the size of your garden. Filling a huge space like ours say, is expensive so cheap planrs is the way to go. Finding the one plant which is perfect for the spot in a small garden needs a different approach.
Still would like to get my hands on Hh. purpurascens, viridis, and any other of the species.
If you can get seed grown H. thibeticus then go for it.
agree with all. Like Lyn I love growing things from seed and cuttings. I currently have some echium pininana (2 varieties) plants that I have grown this year from bought seed. I don't expect them to flower till the summer after next, and then they will die, so you might ask "why bother"? Having grown them before, I think they are just such spectacular plants that it's worth the time and effort, and I certainly wouldn't buy them as plants knowing their fate.
However, although I have grown lots of perennials from seed as well I believe that Hellebores, and some other long lived perennials, are worth some investment. While I'm happy to wait for some plants to mature, I really want to see some things flowering as soon as possible. I've probably bought 5 or 6 hellebores over the years, and now have their offspring dotted around the garden. I only have a small garden to fill, a teeny weeny mini-greenhouse and a limited number of sunny windowsills, so that works for me - if I had much more ground to fill then small plants or growing my own from seed would be the only affordable options.
I think most of us like to spend as little as possible but have nice plants and gardens, and we use a variety of methods to get what we want. Learning about the different things people do is what I find so interesting on this forum!
(oh and I'm not above "acquiring" seed from nice hellebores spotted in public parks!)
Posts
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Wisley/About-Wisley/Plant-of-the-month/January/Sarcococca-hookeriana-var--digyna
I think you want humilis
In the sticks near Peterborough
sounds like your Dad's hellebore might be a Corsican one or maybe the native "stinking hellebore" ?
in which case, they don't need scalping and should have lots of offspring for you to "acquire"! they can get quite leggy, especially once the flower stalk has gone over. I chop the faded flowers off for that reason - I don't particularly want more. Good for an awkward shady spot.
Winter flowers...... agree with Nut, cyclamen are great - hederifolium flowering now (and you can get varieties with lovely silver patterns on the leaves as well as lovely flowers), c.coum will flower in January. Stick them under deciduous trees or shrubs and they will do their thing and go dormant over summer. They will also self seed once established, so you get colonies of them over time. I have legions of "babies" popping up!
Could your mystery plant be a liriope? there are lots of things it could be but "strappy leaves" made me think of it - it does flower- in late summer, I think
While visiting a little nursery out amongst the Norfolk Broads last spring I succumbed to temptation and bought a Helleborus x hybridus Mandela - If I remember correctly it cost an arm and a leg!!! I can find very little about it on the web other than this snippet
"Helleborus×hybridus' Mandela' HYBRID LENTEN ROSE
Selfs from a mother plant that produces nicely
shaped, rounded flowers of 'black/burgundy with
nicely overlapping petals held well above the
foliage."
I'm so looking forward to seeing it bloom again
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't know the names of mine (note to self - keep notes). I have a black one, a yellowy/green one, a well-established clump of purply pink ones, a double red, speckledy pink and speckledy white! plus lots of their varied offspring which should flower in spring. Looking forward to seeing what comes up and seeing any new colours. I must stay away from garden centres when they are in season. I can't resist them
Verdun, have you ever bought those bare root ones from Hayloft.
I am not sure of the exact time i bought these, but I didnt start my garden until august2011, the previous photo is the result of one of those bare roots. That was taken in last seasons flowering..i think I bought them then, they flowered like that the following year, 2012/13.
I know you can buy large plants for instant colour, Heligan have a lovely selection, and Hellebore week, but for me, gardening is about growing them from little plants, seeds, cuttings etc.bringing them on and planting out, for me, thats gardening
I very rarely buy a big plant and plonk it in.I am more the Carl Klien sort of gardener. Beg, steal and borrow.
Lyn - i have tried the Hayloft plugs - they have made great healthy plants, but i have had to wait 2 years for flowers. In the meantime i bought a couple of already blooming ones to tide me over (and curb my impatience
). Have to say the plugs ultimately seem to make better plants for me - but i have only ever used GC for the full grown ones, not a specialist nursery.
know what you mean about nurturing the little ones though - gives a great sense of satisfaction
I understamd whar Verdun is saying. I grow hundreds of Hellebores from seed each year and eventually throw most of them on the compost heap as they are not good enough or are exactly the same as ones I have.
I do the same with Geum too.
In a way it depends on the size of your garden. Filling a huge space like ours say, is expensive so cheap planrs is the way to go. Finding the one plant which is perfect for the spot in a small garden needs a different approach.
Still would like to get my hands on Hh. purpurascens, viridis, and any other of the species.
If you can get seed grown H. thibeticus then go for it.
agree with all. Like Lyn I love growing things from seed and cuttings. I currently have some echium pininana (2 varieties) plants that I have grown this year from bought seed. I don't expect them to flower till the summer after next, and then they will die, so you might ask "why bother"? Having grown them before, I think they are just such spectacular plants that it's worth the time and effort, and I certainly wouldn't buy them as plants knowing their fate.
However, although I have grown lots of perennials from seed as well I believe that Hellebores, and some other long lived perennials, are worth some investment. While I'm happy to wait for some plants to mature, I really want to see some things flowering as soon as possible. I've probably bought 5 or 6 hellebores over the years, and now have their offspring dotted around the garden. I only have a small garden to fill, a teeny weeny mini-greenhouse and a limited number of sunny windowsills, so that works for me - if I had much more ground to fill then small plants or growing my own from seed would be the only affordable options.
I think most of us like to spend as little as possible but have nice plants and gardens, and we use a variety of methods to get what we want. Learning about the different things people do is what I find so interesting on this forum!
(oh and I'm not above "acquiring" seed from nice hellebores spotted in public parks!)