My kindly neighbors are getting tired of my dragging them into our garden to see each new hellebore flower open, so I'm joining the forum in the hope of sharing excitement and exchanging information with you all.

I've loved hellebores since childhood and we have good growing conditions for them, so I've been hand-pollinating hellebores since 1999 to add attractive plants to our garden. We now have 51 orientalis hybrids in flower or bud. Thirty-eight of them are the "keepers" from my breeding experiments. We also grow purpurescans, argutifolius, lividus, foetidus and x sternii.

Over the years that I've experimented with pollination, I've become increasingly interested in hellebore genetics and ecology, so I look forward to learning more about your hellebore breeding experiences.

Best,

Elizabeth