hellebores

[janeyo]

I have a beautiful purple hellebore on flower at the mo. Can I take seeds to get more of the same? If so how and when and what do I do with them? Seed them straight away or store? If I store when do I sow?

Thanks

janeyo

[Birdie Wife]

Hi janeyo,
Hellebores hybridise freely so the only way of being sure of producing more purple flowers is to split the plant up. You could try sowing the seeds too, they are supposed to be quite easy and you might get some new and lovely colours and patterns - funnily enough I've just been doing some reading on this as I want to try some of my hellebore seed! The seed is best sown fresh, squeeze the pods gently and if they split then they are ready for sowing. It might need a period of cold to break the seed dormancy. You can do this by sowing the seed in pots and either putting them in the fridge for a couple of weeks or leave in a coldframe overwinter (but try and remember to water the compost occasionally!

Good luck!

[Flummery]

If you arenot too tidy (I'm not!) just leave the flower heads on and you can collect seedlings from around your plants. I do this every year and keep some, give some away. From 3 purple ones I now have purple, almost black, various shades of pink, some with fetching spots, and creamy white. It take a couple of years to get the flower but it's a real voyage of adventure. I've never dared split my originals as I'm afraid I'd kill both bits! I intended to keep just the deep purple offspring and rogue out the others but to be honest they are all so gorgeous I keep all of them.

[Pumpkin Becki]

I adore Hellebores too. I have a woodchip mulch underneath mine, and the seeds germinate really well in this with no intervention from me. I just wait until they are big enough to prick out and transplant elsewhere, but like Flum I am not worried about the colour flowers the seedlings will go on to produce - I love the mystery.

[valmarg]

I used to save seed, germinate it, pot it on and it always seemed to die.

I've since left the plants to their own devices, and they have self seeded. I now have several self seeded plants. Probably because there are no other hellebores in the area they have all come true to the parent plant.

valmarg