If you've got one seedling, you will probably have others (Careful poking around that you don't uproot or decapitate them) if mice or birds didn't make off with your seeds.

I have hellebores still germinating here, many without their set of true, identifying leaves yet.

Some of them I will lift and pot to grow a little larger before replanting here or in someone else's garden; with our cool summers I don't have to be in a hurry to move the seedlings. If you don't feel confident moving your seedling, wait until you've handled a few...it won't become crowded this season but my suggestion would be 1 1/2' - 2' for better spacing - my h. foetidus and oriental hybrids at just over three years are proving to be large plants.

I teach at an Elementary School, and we have a number of good sized hellebores planted around the school. Just today I decided to go looking for seedlings. There is a wonderful supply! I brough two home today, but I've got to get more!

I've found that you can push them along by continuing to pot them up into bigger pots; if you keep on doing this under lights through the winter for a few seedlings then you can plant them out in the spring and you'll have flowers MUCH faster than if you just left them at the feet of the mother plant.

zone5rose

Me too!, lots of them. I had three Hellebores for several years and although I had read where they reseeded easily, I never ever got seedlings. We had a much longer cold period this year than the whole seven years we have lived here, so perhaps that helped. I planted 6 more plants last year cause I needed them for our early spring garden tour. Now I have found several seedlings today. In fact, I am so inexperienced at identifying them, I had to go the the seed site in the UK to try to find a picture, although once I took photos and studied them on my computer, it was easy to see what they were. They are also tough leathery seedlings like the parent plant. I did post pictures of my seedlings and one of a mama leaf as well as the thumbnail from the seed site for camparison if anyone should need it.
Pauline in Wilmington NC

Here is a link that might be useful: My Hellebore Seedlings

Just a note to you all with seedlings out there.

To transplant, water well, then dig a little deeper than you thought necessary, a 2" seedling will have a 4-5" root. That's why they're better lifted early than left to develop and get over congested in situ.

Be careful not to bruise the stem when you lift them.

Either pot them up in deep pots or line them out in a nursery bed, use a nice rich soil, making sure that the 4-5" root is pointing down when you do so. I space mine about 8" apart and leave them for 2 years to flower for first time, then consider what I'll do with them, gifts, swaps, sell, keep....

You'll have lots of good sized plants in no time.

Cheers Greenmanplants

when i first started gardening, 02, i ordered hellebore seeds, and nothing happened. i also bought a hellebore that summer. it bloomed for the first time 2 years ago, and after, I moved it to a better location, and i guess those first flowers dropped some seed. last year it didn't bloom much more, what with the move and all, but a couple seedlings appeared, and the mother plant grew like mad. this year i was shocked by a huge head of flowers! even the squirrels eating some did not ruin it! and the seedlings are coming back. (I killed one last year by accident.) so after reading the comments here i guess i will be moving them away from mom so they can develop better. thanks for the advice!