Hellebores

[Hoy]

Helleborus black. well it is almost black.

Michael, you have a marvellous collection!
One seedling of mine is to flower for the first time in some days - it looks so far to be almost as black as this one! I'll take a picture later.

[Todd Boland]

Mine are still frozen solid...no blooms until May.  I only have 7 selections so far but have 5 more on order for this spring.  I am starting to develop a love for them.

[cohan]

I just got my first two- from the plants that were on sale as florist plants at the supermarket- they are really no good as florist plants unless you can sell them fast! The creamy flowers quickly turned green, then the leaves started to yellow...lol So they were marked down sharply, and when I asked if they expected to be chucking them soon, they said probably and gave me two...lol.. they are starting new leaves, so hopefully are healthy- though there was a lot of water in the plastic pot covers (stinky!!!!) now I just have to keep them healthy indoors for the looooong time till I can put them outside....

[AmyO]

Cohan...Keep a close eye out for aphids!! The ones sold in bloom at supermarkets are so stressed they are aphid magnets!!

[RickR]

Cohan...Keep a close eye out for aphids!! The ones sold in bloom at supermarkets are so stressed they are aphid magnets!!

I'll second that.  But aphids are easy to kill...

[McDonough]

Helleborus niger is suddenly pushing forward withe buds expanding.  The form I grow is pink tinged when starting (now), aging to a strong pink color later on.




The plant always sets lots of seed, but no self-sown seedlings ever show up unless I give assistance, scratching in the seed when ripe.  When seed is sown "in situ", it germinates like weeds.  In the first photo, are clusters of 2-year seedlings, and the right-hand photo shows the first flowering from a 3-year old seedling.  In just several years scratching seed "in situ" I now have many hundreds of H. niger seedlings, probably too many, but an affordable and very doable way of increasing stock of one's plants.

[cohan]

Cohan...Keep a close eye out for aphids!! The ones sold in bloom at supermarkets are so stressed they are aphid magnets!!

I'll watch for that, thanks.. almost all of the old leaves are gone, just flower stems left.. I do agree with Rick though- as someone who has had to battle with mealybugs indoors for years, aphids are like a holiday...lol

[RickR]

And I hope you have cut the flower/seed pod off.  Otherwise you'll just be draining energy from the plant to the seeds that probably won't be "healthy" anyway.

[Tim Ingram]

Those rounded flowers are what the famous hellebore breeders like Helen Ballard and Elizabeth Strangman aimed for. They also crossed plants generally in the garden, rather than greenhouses, so as a result developed good garden strains - but it must have been freezing and hard work at times so early in the year! Elizabeth Strangman repeated pollination several times to ensure good results, and chose the warmest days. The plants were dotted about the nursery marked with different coloured wools. Somehow nice to see this with all the beds of plants for sale in between - harks back to the small individual specialist nurseries of old, which would be nice to see more of again. Must go out and get some pictures, but I haven't many as striking as Michael's.

[cohan]

And I hope you have cut the flower/seed pod off.  Otherwise you'll just be draining energy from the plant to the seeds that probably won't be "healthy" anyway.

I'll take  a closer look, I don't think there is any seed forming, though I left the flower stems-- since the flowers have turned green, I assumed they are photosynthesizing!

[Hoy]

Helleborus niger is suddenly pushing forward withe buds expanding.  The form I grow is pink tinged when starting (now), aging to a strong pink color later on.


The plant always sets lots of seed, but no self-sown seedlings ever show up unless I give assistance, scratching in the seed when ripe.  When seed is sown "in situ", it germinates like weeds.  In the first photo, are clusters of 2-year seedlings, and the right-hand photo shows the first flowering from a 3-year old seedling.  In just several years scratching seed "in situ" I now have many hundreds of H. niger seedlings, probably too many, but an affordable and very doable way of increasing stock of one's plants.

Mark it is a nice form you grow! If you ever get too many seed . . . . . .

[cohan]

Boy, were these plants ever a terrible idea as houseplants!!!! They reek! When I brought them from work, the pots had the plastic wrappers common in florist plants, and they had water in them, so before bringing them home, I dumped out the water and washed it with soap- it smelled very bad (like vomit) but sometimes water with organic material that sits around would smell like that, so I didn't think much of it...

Well, the next day, the whole house smelled like vomit, even though the plants were in a back room, with the door closed much of the time.. I thought it was just the pot still holding the bad smell from the water, so I threw out the plastic wrapper, sprayed the outside of the pot with a household cleaner, rinsed, dipped in a bucket of water with bleach (only the plastic pot, not wetting the soil) rinsed, and dipped in vinegar water, rinsed..l the plant/pot seemed to be mostly odour free, so I thought it was good-- but apparently not! after several days- most of which spent with the front door open, fans on, candles burning, the door to that room closed, and still the house smells, especially once the front door is closed!
Next effort will be to enclose the two plants in a large clear plastic bag.. still far too cold to put the plants outdoors when they are not used to it, but if the bags don't work they will be outside-- much longer, and I will get put out....lol

[Lori S.]

Well, darn... who would have thought?  It's great to get some desirable plants for free so I hope the plastic bag contains the smell. 

[cohan]

Well, darn... who would have thought?  It's great to get some desirable plants for free so I hope the plastic bag contains the smell. 

I hope so too! Were I living alone I might put up with the smell (locked away in another room) but for the non-plant lovers in the house, there really is no pay-off...lol
I tried looking up the smell a bit, and came up with Helleborus foetidus, so the genus does have some reputation, though I think these are probably niger- which I eventually found some references to the scent of in herbals- 'offensive odour when leaves crushed' Perhaps it was the clipping they did of the dead leaves which released the fragrance....though the drained water really smelled, so must come from the roots too!

[Hoy]

Cohan, if it smells like vomit it probably is butyric acid made by bacteria in stagnant oxygen free water (anaerobic respiration). The fat roots of the hellebore is starch rich and nice food for hungry bacteria!
It is not poisonous but an important constituent of butter