New species? Helleborus micha?

19 years ago

Lately I have seen Helleborus micha 'White Beauty'or 'Pink Beauty' offered for sale at retail nuresries and wholesalers here in Washington state. I was not aware of a new species being discovered. Is this a made up name or does it have taxonomic standing?

A quick google search finds that it is patented by Vulcan Plants out of the Netherlands.

Hellebore experts out there, please chime in with your opinion.

Additionally, All retailers and wholesalers are only offering 2 gallon sizes ranging in price from $12.50 wholesale and $22.95 retail. Thought it was odd that no 1 gallon is offered.

Thanks, Jake

Comments (4)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
19 years ago
It's a case of some less than ideal labeling. The michas are a trademarked strain of nigricors hybrids developed in The Netherlands and are more properly labeled as Helleborus 'Micha White Beauty' or 'Micha Pink Beauty'. As for the larger size offering, from a retail nursery buyer's point of view, older plants in larger sizes are more inclined to be in bud or bloom on the nursery tables than younger, smaller plants and hellebores in bloom sell fast. I carry a lot of larger sizes for that reason.
Greenmanplants
19 years ago
White Beauty is certainly a Nigercors that they've had in microprop these last 2 years. I have a feeling that Pink Beauty is actually another Niger hybrid, usually known as 'Eric Smithii', The pink coming from the lividus blood in it. This is quite a variable plant and is made from crossing lividus and argutifolius, to give 'Sternii' then crossing that with niger to give 'Eric Smithii' Eric Smith was a famous plantsman at Hillier & Sons in the 1950s and moved on to set up in Buckshaw in Dorset where with Jim Archibald he ran the retail nursery "The Plantsmen". He is attributed with being the first to make this combination of cross around 1970. So I guess what is registered to the Dutch is their micropropagated version of this which IMO is not such a good plant as many 'Eric Smithiis' I have seen elsewhere.

Cheers Greenmanplants
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jgwoodard
19 years ago
which brings up an interesting question: imagine before you are two plants, one is labelled H x ericsmithii, the other is labelled 'Pink Beauty'. The ericsmithii is priced at 21.00, and the pink beauty is 22.95. Now assume the plants are identical. Which would you buy? :)
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
19 years ago
I've got 'Pink Beauty' coming into the nursery this week, so I'll be interested to see how similar/different it is from ericsmithii. Also another offering from the same grower labeled 'Vulcan Beauty', which, to the best I can tell before seeing it, is just a strain of niger.

I'm also interested to see how 'Pink Beauty' looks compared to 'Ivory Prince', which appears to have a similar parentage to ericsmithii. This is a stunning plant and I have difficulty keeping it in stock. It's hard to resist a plant with such striking foliage as well as the profusion of bud and bloom 'Ivory Prince' offers.