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Hellebore seedlings

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  • Hellebore seedings planted out in nursery bed last year.



    Now showing strong growth. Hope to see flowers next year?



  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    I guess you grew them from seed? I've never had much luck with hellebores, though I'll be having another go this year. Only two years to flowering?
  • Actually they were transplanted seedlings I dug up from under some plants.
  • Hellebores have done well in their nursery bed. Most are flowering, with a few nice light colour ones. The purple gene is clearly dominant. 







  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,352
    Well done! - I particularly like that last one.

    Hellebores are relatively easy to propagate from naturally dropped seed. The main problem is that most of the offspring of these rather promiscuous plants tend to be muddy variants of cream and mauve rather than the clear, rich colours of the parent plants.

    Unless you’re trying to fill a very large area with a natural looking planting scheme, I’d ruthlessly go through the plants you’ve grown and only keep the best ones. If you have space you can collect seedlings every year and grow them on until they flower and eventually you will have a nice collection. You could also try pollinating some plants yourself to see if you can produce a few treasures.
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    Hi all I've had about 30 hellebore seedlings potted up in 3" pots living in my cold frame for a year, they seem to have great root development but haven't grown hardly at all. 

    I have them in shadyish spot and well protected from wind, is there anything I could do to help them along. 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Plant them out in the open ground, they’re not very happy in small pots. They’ll soon grow. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Topbird said:
    Well done! - I particularly like that last one.

    Hellebores are relatively easy to propagate from naturally dropped seed. The main problem is that most of the offspring of these rather promiscuous plants tend to be muddy variants of cream and mauve rather than the clear, rich colours of the parent plants.

    Unless you’re trying to fill a very large area with a natural looking planting scheme, I’d ruthlessly go through the plants you’ve grown and only keep the best ones. If you have space you can collect seedlings every year and grow them on until they flower and eventually you will have a nice collection. You could also try pollinating some plants yourself to see if you can produce a few treasures.
    Plan is as you say to keep the best and hand over the rest to our local church plant sale. Anything with a flower on it usually get snapped up this time of year. I plant up the seedlings from underneath the pale colours as I prefer a lighter colour. 
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    Thanks Lyn out they go to do there thing !!
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