Hellebores are high fashion, specially the newer, better coloured H. orientalis hybrids. This means that the demand for plants of good forms is heavy, in fact out-stripping supplyas these hellebores have proved not amenenable to modern methods for mass production.

Propagation

Tissue culture methods have proven very disappointing to date and growers have been forced back to old fashioned division of plants. Whilst this is fine for gardeners who perhaps really only want to split one plant into three or four, the nurseryman begins to feel frustrated.

However we can all sow seeds, and this is a rewarding experience as many of the best forms will give equally good seedlings with the chance of some really outstanding ones. (once harvested, hellebore seed should be sown as soon as possible).

Now is the time to sow seed of helleboresthey are best sown as soon as possible after harvesting. Summer and Autumn is not the time when seed sowing is necessarily at the front of our minds but if you want good results from hellebore seeds sow as soon as possible.

They can be sown in pots of seed compost, covered with half an inch of compost and then placed outside, perhaps even sunk into the ground to keep moist. Nothing will appear until the end of the year, perhaps just into the new year, when the seedlings will poke through and unfurl their first leaves; a pair of oval, rich-green cotyledons.

At this stage I like to take my pots into the cool greenhouse. They are hardy and will resist the frost but the protection will encourage the seedlings to grow that bit faster. As soon as they begin to produce their first true leaf the pot can be taken out and each seedling carefully extracted; they are best potted up individually.

Most books and other sources suggest that it takes two or three years to get H. orientalis hybrids to flowering size. This is altogether too pessimistic; I expect 85% or more to bloom the first winter after germination. To do this it is best to pot individually early, to repot into 4in. pots when the seedlings are in danger of getting pot boundand then to plant out into permanent quarters in late spring.

Keeping the plants to long in pots is no help, but once planted out they will not want to be moved again unless you want to split them in another two or three years time. Young plants can be given some potash-rich fertiliser, such as Tomato feed. With such favoured treatment it will normally be only the odd plant that does not reach flowering maturity by the first winter.