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Joseph Lemper

brpinson
14 years ago

I bought a Joseph Lemper from a very small, local nursery last week. This is the only variety of hellebore she carried this year, and she had less than a dozen. My question is...does this variety set seed. The plant I bought had loads of flowers, about 75% of them appear to have seed pods. I just wondered if the plant seeds true, or if there will even be any seeds in the pods. Thanks very much....Barb

Comments (3)

  • georgia-rose
    14 years ago

    Helleborus niger 'Joseph (Josef) Lemper' is a selected seedling from a cross between 2 H. niger plants (unnamed), so it's entirely possible that it would produce viable seed.

    Any seed produced though, would usually result in a plant unlike the hybrid parent, in some respects, but would still be a H. niger, since both parents were.

    If there are viable seed, it might be interesting to determine what the plant appearance would be like!

  • brpinson
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks very much, Georgia-rose. Planning on putting this in a new area, and letting nature do the work so we'll see what happens. I'm not sure how well it will do here since I am in Zone 8 (b-South Carolina). Have never tried a hellebore niger before, but now that they are more readily available, decided to give it a shot...also found 3 other Ivory prince plants at a different nursery and am going to try my luck with those as well. The hellebore orientalis and foetidus do very well here...almost too well...they seed around quite a bit (which suits me just fine...evergreen and deer resistant). Thanks again.

  • coolplantsguy
    14 years ago

    FWIW, it's been an outstanding plant for me since I planted it a year or two ago. Started blooming in November, and basically didn't stop through March.

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