More Hellebore Seedlings..

....last spring I collected about 40 seeds from a New Zealand hybrid Hellebore that flowered for the first time after I'd originally grown it from seed a few years earlier. It had dozens of stunning pure white flowers which were very long lasting, it must have flowered for close on 2 months (more buds just emerging now too).

Anyway I sowed the seeds fresh late last spring and popped them under a bush and left them alone, around October time I moved them into a coldframe to keep some of the horrendous amounts of rain off them lol

Yesterday I decided to have a peek in the coldframe, first time for a while as that's all thats in there really and to my joy all the seeds have germinated, I now have 2 pot fulls of seedlings - happy days, the first generation of New Zealand hybrid babies ....hopefully they'll come true as the parent plant is isolated from my othe hellebores..

 

Bilbo , I`ve been looking to buy few hellebore to give as a present as far as you know are there any variety that will hold heat ?
if you manage to get them so easy from seeds how came they are so expencive to buy?
great result as usual

 

Very variable from seed, so you are probably looking at named varieties (vegetatively propagated). There were loads of different varieties at Wisley the other day - too many, in fact, to be able to make any rational choice from, so I bought a clematis instead! (which was ALSO not in their 50% off sale ...)

 

I did the same with the H.orientalis seeds that were in the new garden. They're just starting to germinate now

If they're for your Italian friend then most should be ok as they're basically dormant in the summer.
Why so expensive - supply and demand I reckon. Plus, from seed it'll be two or three years to blooming.
I have spare seed if you want some.

 

Sal I still have about 40-50 young plants from 2011's seed sowing of H.orientalis, if you would like a few your more than welcome, I can pop them in the post next week

They're still quite small and probably won't flower until next year or the year after but they're there if you want some

 

Don't forget when sending them that they hate having their roots dry out even for a very short time. Packaging to take this into account.

 

Thanks for the advice Palustris , they are still in 2.5" pots ready to be potted up/planted out so they would be sent in those and wouldn't dry out...

 

Grandmother and eggs come to mind. Sorry, but I was sent some seedlings last year and they had been so badly packed and had dried out, so they did not survive.