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Hellebores - Part 1Read the article this discussion is about
This archived discussion is "read only". « Previous 1 2 3 Next » » elle - hellebores color Hi..The one that is setting seed is a very pale lilac with lots of cream and green in it..I'm afraid I got them at the last of their growing season.The seeds have not yet come out..I check every day because the guy I bought it from said that after the first seed pod released I could remove the other 2 and plant them in pots. I decided to try and propagate my dark purple one (last years) and wow, I was fairly successful! I have several seed pods growing on this plant. I feel like a new mama. My dark purple is still nicely in bloom and since I got a few plant props, I am able to encourage the heads fo the flowers to at least face outwards instead of down. I wish this was native to my area as it would be very nice mixed in with trillium and other Pacific Northwest native plants in the Lawn reclamation project I have going on. All we have is a "false Hellebore" Much larger and not a companion for undergrowth plants, though I might use it in the back of my native garden. -- posted by elle » Marge_Talt - hellebores, true and false Hi Elle,Your new hellebore sounds an enchanting color. I'll bet the green is due to the flowers fading and that when they are in the height of their bloom for you next year the colors will be the lavendar and cream - sounds delicious. Seed pods generally ripen for me sometime in late May or June, so don't expect seed just yet. They should get quite fat if full of seed. Just keep an eye on them and when they start to look ripe (color gets a bit more yellowish), put a cloth (or newspaper if it's not going to rain) on the ground under them, just in case you miss the actual pod splitting. From that point, check every day. Once the pods split, gather them up and plant the seeds immediately. You should have germination before Christmas. Good for you, re: your purple one! Sounds like you're going to be swimming in hellebore babies come next spring:-) They would go marvelously with Trillium - are you restricted to only native plants for your reclamation project? Is your false hellebore, by any chance, a variety of Veratrum? If so, do you know which species it is? I have been lusting after Veratrum nigrum or V. album for years and years. V. californicum and V. viride are native to the US. The other two are from Europe and Asia. It is never in any of the catalogs or at our local nurseries, probably because they are so dang hard to propagate. I've tried seed - bought and from exchanges - and had putrid luck. Either none germinates or only one or two and they don't make it. This is a plant whose first year is spent growing a root - virtually no above ground activity - and then, so I read, it is very slow to make any growth. It is also one that is best from fresh seed - virtually impossible to obtain, it seems. -- posted by Marge_Talt » CarolWallace - That Will McLewin hellebore <img SRC="http://www.suite101.com/files/topics/75/..." align=left> I remember that you asked if I could post a picture of this, but can't remember which hellebore discussion that was in. But today I managed to get all the things plugged into my machine working again and got the digital camera going - so here it is.-- posted by CarolWallace » Marge_Talt - H. atrorubens Thank you, Carol! That's super. Aside from the color of the flower, mine does not look like this - flower form totally different, more closed and drooping; an imposter, for sure.Is yours deciduous??? -- posted by Marge_Talt » CarolWallace - Don't forget That's an aged flower - it has opened more than when it was fresh. And it's drooping plenty - I got that picture by holding the digital camera underneath it.Not deciduous - at least there were a few leaves browning and looking sickly when I saw them first this spring. They are still pretty young, though. -- posted by CarolWallace » Marge_Talt - not deciduous Hmmm....Carol. Were those last year's leaves? Reference definitely said this species was deciduous. I took that to mean they died back completely, but, o'course, could be mistaken there.Did yours put up flowers and then new leaves? Clever of you to get the camera under the flower and get a decent photo! If I'd done that, it would have been a total blur:-) -- posted by Marge_Talt » CarolWallace - Hmmm Where did you get your H. atrorubens? I have this feeling we might have had he same source. Those were probably this year's leaves. I started to cut off the old ones on most hellebores in the side yard and then we got hit with frost and I left the rest. I never touched the leaves on these - but then a lot of them seemed to have disappeared and then suddenly reappeared in the past three weeks. The are quite green and healthy looking - so I'd have to say they are new.It took 5 shots to get the actual flower into the picture. I wasn't able to see the viewfinder. But my digitaldoes have a handy little setting called "micro" - and it seems to work! -- posted by CarolWallace » NancyS_5 - Hellebore babies Marge: A belated thanks for pointing out that hellebores seed themselves. This year for the first time I discovered tons of seedlings, some many yards (and around a few corners) away from my two original plants. It's really hard for me to decide who shall live and who shall die (Sophie's choice?). I'm wondering--If my two plants are standard-issue orientalis, is there any chance that the progeny will look any different than the parents? (My hopes are that I will end up with something like the special photos you posted.)On another note: A couple of weeks ago one of my cats knocked off the top of a yellow-flowered hellebore I had mail-ordered this spring. I stuck the roots in a pot, but so far there is no sign of life. What are the odds that this will come back? Nancy -- posted by NancyS_5 » Marge_Talt - hellebore babies Hi Nancy,You're welcome:-) I've found seedlings a pretty long way from the parent plants, too and always wonder how they got there. Think it must be ants as those seeds are too heavy to blow all that distance. Even had some show up on the opposite side of a yew hedge and about 25 feet away from the parent plants...they had to walk up a low stone wall and crawl through the hedge to get there...hellebore seed with tiny little feet:-) Well rather than having to play King Solomon, why not pot up the excess and give them to new homes? Few are totally unworthy of growing in a garden. As far as getting some grand new flower, the odds are probably against it, but you never know. If you have totally different flower colors, you could get a happy accident. Graham, I know, purposely pollinates his plants to try to achieve crosses and then grows them on for about 3 years until they flower and then rogues out those that aren't worth anything to him. He studies parentage and genes to try to achieve his goals in his crosses. Not to say interesting plants don't turn up as chance seedlings, tho....happens all the time. I have not gotten that discriminating...I will keep all of them and let them grow:-) Re: your poor yellow flowered plant. I really don't know the answer to that. About this time of year, they are going into a semi-dormant stage - after seed set time - and will then think about growing roots in late summer, so may not be thinking about putting out new foliage...this for mature clumps. With a new child, probably seed grown?, it will depend on how much energy it has managed to store in the root system. I'd keep the pot; keep it moist but not soggy and wait at least until August or so and then check to see if there is any root activity or whether it is a soggy, rotten mess. Here's hoping for the best! A couple of weeks is not a long time in hellebore time... -- posted by Marge_Talt » Marge_Talt - hmmmm Well, Carol, thanks to Nancy's post, I discovered that I'd totally missed yours....vast apologies!I think I got my H. atrorubens from Gene...will not swear to this as I did not get it into the database as I should have so have only tag saying who it is, not where it's from. Hmmm...well, tho' if the ones that were on it when the photo was taken were old ones, yours can't be the true species, either as it is supposed to be deciduous..but, it seems that the true species is really hard to find and most plants going under that name are cultivars of some kind..at least, according to Rice and Strangman, whom I do trust to be accurate. From what Will McLewin said at WSW, and from what I have subsequently read, the IDing of helleobores is rather confused - even for botanists - so nursery owners who do not specialize in hellebores are rather taking the word of their source, if you see what I mean. Doesn't mean they shouldn't do their homework same as the rest of us, but....can be understood. Recently did a web search for a list of plants from about 8 online nurseries and find that the naming of plants varies all over the map - and these are reputable firms. Same plant, different spellings, capitalization and even same cultivar name with different species designation...have found this whenever I search for a specific plant through a range of nurseries... Your digital is a marvel...that is one toy I have on my "want" list in no uncertain terms! -- posted by Marge_Talt « Previous 1 2 3 Next » Please follow the guidelines set forth in the Suite101 Posting Etiquette when adding to the discussion. |
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