Double hellebores are the latest rage and prices are not cheap anywhere you look. Pine Knot is offering their doubles for $45 retail for a blooming sized gallon pot and that seems to be somewhat typical, so your prices are not out of line. FWIW, the Heronswood Doubles I offer at my nursery are retailing for $39.99, which is a better deal than if you ordered direct from Heronswood. I'm sure some of the other forum members may think it heresay, but I am not all that entranced by the double forms - the flowers are heavy and inevitably hang down a lot, they are easily damaged by rains and cold and the color selection is very limited. Give me a stunning single black or a heavily spotted white any day.

The Mardi Gras strain is a very nice selection by color of xhybridus developed locally, but unless you know something I don't, they are not doubles and are priced more modestly. They are similar in appearance to the Sunshine strain in that they offer picotees, apricots, yellows and other, less common colorations.

Sunshine Farms hellebore gallery should give you some good pics of doubles like Party Dress.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sunshine Farms

The reality of many doubles is that they look tired quickly. This is due to the configuration of a hellebore flower. It is the sepals that are the most decorative part, the inner nectaries and stamens are relatively insignificant in the standard single bloom. Hence once a single has been pollinated, fertilised and is setting seed, it still looks largely like the single bloom it ever was. A plant in seed can look almost the same as one in bloom. Whereas, in the doubles, the inner petals often fall or being less robust than the sepals get tatty or worse still wither, leaving a bedraggled looking bloom that looks like it needs deadheading....

Then again, if you like the doubles and you've plenty of spare cash, it's a personal choice. The laws of supply and demand have put a premium on the price of doubles this year, question is, are there good buys to be had in the singles market because everyone is chasing the doubles.

Cheers Greenmanplants.

I expect things cost more in Chicago than they do here in Mayberry. But for $50 I'd expect to go into a greenhouse full of flowering hellebores and pick out my favorite. I can't see paying that much for one that hasn't bloomed. You might end up with a single flower in pale green.

The 'Party Dress Strain' are the so-called "Anemone Flower" type and not a full double and IMHO, a very un-attractive flower. I purchased several from Heronswood Nursery a few years ago at a very reasonable price and each one flowered the first season. I agree with the comments in the previous threads, that the flowers on the full doubles are attractive only for a short period of time and you have to lift them up to observe them. I, also, like the black & dark purple x hybridus strains and would pay more for one of those than any double I've grown or seen.
Rb

I agree and disagree with the doubles being nice for only a short period. Depending on the vigor and size, many of my doubles do not droop, so can be viewed from above easily. They are very open and upfacing. Heronswood Doubles retail for $30 which is less that gardengal offers them at her nursery, unless you get the more unusual purple double which Heronswood offers for $40. They are flowering age and gallon size plants. Very nice, and well worth the money from my experience. I have found doubles at local nurseries also and they usually range from $30-$45, but not as nice as the Heronswood ones. Singles are nice, but I prefer the doubles, and do not care much for the Anemone flowered ones, but that's my own personal opinion. But... to answer your question, I think that this nursery is definatly a bit too expensive for the mardi gras and party dress strain. You should look around and I am sure you will find better deals.

Good luck ~ darrensprincess

Heronswood only offers the most common form of their doubles - a kind of washed out pink - for $30. All the other colors of doubles are retailing for $45. Why they don't show that larger selection and price on their online catalog as opposed to what is reflected in the print catalog I can't say, but $45 for a full, blooming-sized gallon seems to be pretty common pricing for most double hellebores.

This is one of the most stunning hellebores I've seen. I usually am drawn to the darker colored ones. Just about ready to plunk down the $45 smackers for this one.

jb

Here is a link that might be useful: Helleborus x ericsmithii Heronswood Form

I agree jb. fortunately you are in a good zone for ericsmithii. Also, it makes sense that the niger hybrids would be a little expensive as very few are fertile and generally it takes a hand cross to produce the plant or tissue culture.
Anyway, the doubles are overpriced in my opinion. A really good double makes sense maybe (one thing I can't understand is how most plants are not separated by quality. maybe the 'eye of the beholder' thing and simply people keep buying). Often, there are plants I would pay $50 for beside plants that I wouldn't buy at any price... and listed for the same price!
It's quite interesting considering how easy doubles are to produce (most are fertile). No doubt in a few years they'll be down with some of the good quality singles once more nurseries get stock plants of ther own and produce in greater quantities.

JB, before you plunk down $45 for a 2' pot of this, find a nursery (or come to Emery's) that carries 'Ivory Prince' and check it out. The similarities are strong - I suspect very similar parentage - and you will get a great whomping big 2G plant laden with blooms for less than that $45 price tag.

Ha ha. Yeah that 2 inch pot for $45 is what is stopping me. I'll have to check out Emmery's.

jb

2 inch? what a bargain. :)

I got two "Party Dress" hellborus last year and they were around $30.00 for 2gal pot. I thought at the time they were pretty steep, but they turned out really well! Here are some pictures!

Gardengal, have you looked at the crop of double hellebores from Heronswood? I handled thousands of them last year, and they were all shades, not a "washed-out pink" like you say.

Maybe you had best attend the Hellebore Open and get educated.

Hmmmm, thanks Kelli for the snarky post. The doubles I am selling are indeed Heronswood doubles and they are most certainly shades of pale pink and mauve - rather washed out and anemic-looking compared to the more vibrant and intense colors of most singles. I'll attribute it to the assumption that the best of the crop are retained at Heronswood for mail order and onsite purchases and that the plants wholesaled by the nursery are the leftovers.

BTW, I've attended the Hellebore Open numerous times and I'm generally considered rather well-versed on hellebores and their culture, not that this makes the slightest bit of difference to the quality of the doubles available to the wholesale market.

Some of my Heronswood doubles...

We just sold out of 250 Heronswood doubles at the NW Garden show last week like lightening. Some were a pale pink, but most out of the 250 had good colors in a wide range from almost white (wow!) to almost purple, some with spots, some incredibly full and frilly, etc. Overall, they were a good looking batch of hellebores!

Andi

This would be for Gardengal. I agree with what you have to say. My Double Purple Heronswood is very drab, and the Double pink is very light.

It may be interesting to note that of the 30 or so species, hybrids or seed strains of hellebores I offer, the single flowering x hybridus color strains outsell the doubles by about 5 to one. However, the hybrid hellebore 'Ivory Prince' blows them all out of the water. I am now on my 6th reorder of this plant this season, having sold about 200 of them in various sizes. PPA Plant of the Year aside, this is a hellebore to watch.

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Ivory Prince'

Great information. My feeling is that the niger hybrids are the cream of the hellebores and their popularity will only grow and grow.
GardenGal, do you have a good statistical idea of what colors people tend to prefer there with the single hybridus?

Nothing formal, just noticing what goes first and what I need to reorder, but the blacks, yellows and apricots are the quickest to be sold of the x hybridus, followed by the whites, specially those with heavy spotting. Pinks and pale purples lag way behind, perhaps because they are more common? The exception is a local strain called 'Winter Queen', which features very large, outward facing flowers most often deep pink and with very heavy spotting. These are very robust plants with tall flower stems and those big flowers are hard to pass up.

In fact, I am disinclined to order many of the Royal Heritage next season as they just don't measure up in terms of color selection or vigor compared to other seed strains I am able to offer.

It's interesting to hear other people's opinions...

I have two RH hellebores, both have fantastic coloring! One is a very soft(but pretty) white/pink with very heavy burgundy spotting, the other is almost a solid burgundy color that absolutely stands out in the garden and is a very good grower. Wish I could figure out how to post pictures here...

Andi

Sounds right on from what I would think. I've heard from other sellers that blacks are often the first to go, and of course, apricots, yellows, and picotees... all can be interesting... and as you say not as common as other color types.

Just stopped by this forum to see what y'all are saying about your Helleborus and this thread caught my eye.

Last year I purchased a hellebores at a local nursery in Amherst NY. It was in a 3" pot and of course not bloom size. I paid $10.00 for that little plant. It was my first and since I grow most of my own plants from seeds, I was really taken back by the $10.00 price tag. I had to have it however since I heard that it is one of the first plants to bloom in the spring and up here in western NY we need all the spring like encouragement we can get at the close of winter. I don't know if it will bloom this year or not but after reading this thread I feel blessed that I got one for $10.00.

Penny