Hi Taryn,
You have not given up yet! My H. x hybridus 'Elizabeth Town Strain', H. x hybridus 'Anemone Flowered' and H. x hybridus 'Heinz Klose Strain' have all sprouted roots and I expect leaf soon. Five others have been slow and still in fridge and look the same as you discribed. Eight weeks of moist chill this weekend. I don't know at this point if more chill is what they need or warmth.

I transplant hellebore seedlings into Fafard no. 2 soilless mix. In larger containers I use a more coarse mix, usualy a well drained perennial mix containing composted bark, peatmoss and perlite with fertilizer. Hellebores like fertilizer, I start at a low rate and increase to a high rate.

As far as orientalis, orientalis hybrid should only be used to name a true cross whose parent is a species orientalis. Most all strains are crosses of hybrid x hybrid so they should be called x hybridus. Helleborus x hybridus has been hybridised so that it is a distinct hellebore with many genes from many species. To call H. x hybridus a orientalis hybrid is very misleading and confusing.

Always Gardening,
Bruce

Thanks Bruce! Will transplant into my usual Promix soilless mix then. Should I fertilize as with other seedlings? Once they get 2 sets of true leaves I mean. I usually do 1/4 strength 10-60-10 with very good results. Got these seeds all the way from Tasmania, of course I'm not giving up, LOL!

Taryn :)

Just noticed leaves starting to peak through the chicken grit. I did it the John Dudley way minus the antifungal drench and pretty much left them alone. Occassionaly I pushed the grit aside to see if the soil dried out but it never did. So far, Elizabeth Town Strain and Spotted Strain and lots of Rachel which is a cross between Helleborus x sternii with Helleborus lividus. Unfortunately, that one isn't hardy here. I don't know what I am going to do with those yet. There seems to be a lot of them.

I have had tons of H niger, H Boughton Beauty, H Spotted Strain, Heinz Klose strain, Mrs Betty Ranicar and Double Flowered anemones in the fridge for months (some time after Taryn posted the link to Elizabeth Town Hellebores). Today I finally had time to move some to pots outside where it remains cold here in Southern Ontario (good for the hellebores and blue poppies this year, but not much else). I picked out those with substantial roots, which all had but the Boughton Beauty (only a few has small roots), and put the rest back in the fridge. Heinz Klose and anemones showed the most germination. Now we await leaves!

Taryn,
my Elizabeth Town seed went into small pots in a 60/30/10 mix of Turface/peat moss/perlite. (The next time I do this it will be with about 20% dolomite or limestone grit replacing some of the Turface.) The trays went into an unheated sunroom, which saw up to 30C several weeks ago. I now have 30-50% of the double anemone showing first leaf, and 10-15% of Mrs Betty Ranicar. Even at this point, I'm talking about a decent number of seedlings, considering the generous portions of seed provided by John Dudley! I used a weak general purpose fertilizer solution for the first time last weekend.

I would certainly bring seed out of the cold if that is still anyone's situation. And I would include an alkaline grit such as dolomite or limestone in the potting soil.

Cheers, Bob.

Bob,
Sounds like you have it down just right. It seems that the anemone flower is the one that sprouted the best. Some of mine are still chilled, but will bring into warmth tomorrow. Warmth?
We had a high of 38degF today with snow all day. We were lucky here in the valley, the snow did not stick. In the hills 15 miles away they had 5 to 6 inches! The sky cleared off and the temp is now dropping!

Kindly,
Bruce

Many thanks to Tim, Bruce, Taryn and every-one for their valuable information on growing from seed. Typically, I didn't research before sowing the seeds I got from John in Tasmania. After sowing in 'small' containers and putting them on heat coils [ under heat lights] I read how you were stratifying first...... Promptly went back out to the greenhouse and took them off the heat and put them under a table [ no heat] Realized the containers were way too small... but too late to do anything about that.....so I just said a little prayer. Later I began to read about successful germinating from everyone and I 'd check mine....nothing showing........Then, I guess it was just dumb luck [ and the weather here has made it the coldest spring in years] I had babies...Each container is filling up nicely and I'm looking forward to potting up. I've just read , before hand, how you all do this and , hopefully, I do this right... Thanks for all the information.

All my seed from John Dudley except for H.niger has sprouted. I recieved the seed around March 10. I plan on emailing John and letting him know about the good germination and hope other folks do to. Positive replies can fuel a growers motivation.

Bruce

I was too late to get the seeds from Tasmania this year. I am very curious how much the seeds cost and how many came for that price.
Mary from Gainesville, GA

Hi again!
Thanks to everyone for their information! Bonitoad,it was my first time growing Hellebores from seed as well, so I think I just asked the right questions, it was everyone else who filled in the answers. :) Must check on the gelcups and baggies again, haven't since I posted this on May 8th. So they are still cold in the fridge! I moved the pots to the GH though, so they should be warming up now that our weather finally is. No topgrowth yet, but hopefully the roots are growing downwards.

Mary, because I was experimenting with 1/3 in pots, 1/3 in gel and 1/3 in coffee filters/baggies, I counted each type and can tell you exactly how generous John and Corrie Dudley were with their seeds. For just under $10.00 (US) I received 102 H. x hybridus 'Elizabeth Town Strain', 81 H. x hybridus 'Heinz Klose', 78 H. x hybridus 'Spotted Strain' and 246 (yes, two hundred and forty-six!) H. x sternii 'Boughton Beauty', which was my 'free' packet I chose. They must have had a bumper crop of those, LOL! Just hope I can overwinter them in my zone, provided I get them through until next fall... Not a bad deal at all, and Bruce's idea of emailing them to thank them for their quality seeds is a good one. And now, the Toronto Maple Leafs are about to start (hopefully win!) game 4 with Carolina, so I'm outta here!

Taryn

Just an update on the hellebores from John Dudley. All mine went outside and got ignored. Last week I noticed some leaves, this week, many sickly-looking roots, and upon close inspection - maggot-hell! I was ignoring them in the late Spring planting rush. So I drenched them, and they they remain, in a shaded spot on the north of my house - whosever survives, does. I will no doubt be getting back to you all for wintering over advice - if I don't, well then toll the death knoll.

Oh Alex, how disappointing! I'll be happy to send you some sprouted seeds if you like. I actually checked the gelcups and baggies in the fridge on May 25th, and transplanted 14 'Heinz Klose', 16 'Elizabeth Town' and 30 'spotted strain'. And now the ones in the greenhouse in pots are all coming up, must have a couple of dozen of each.

I thought I'd keep the ones in the fridge as 'back up' in case I cooked the others, or forgot to water, or some other tragedy took them. But honestly, just checked them and except for 'Heinz Klose' I have lots of all of them. If I sent you half of them, I'd still have lots of all of them. And H. sternii 'Boughton Beauty' is sprouting like crazy now in the fridge and the greenhouse too, though I don't know how this will winter over for us. Let me know, it's still cool enough to ship, but probably won't be for long.

Taryn

Thanks Taryn: Its okay, there are still some survivors - I actually resorted to chemicals! The Boughton Beauty are doing nothing for me though, but double anemones and Heinz Klose are prolific. The niger aren't great either. It was just all of this rain we had lately, but I too received a ton, and the second batch was not affected by the maggots, so fingers still crossed! Bruce also offered to send me some seeds - you are both too kind. Perhaps in 5 years we should visit each other's gardens! We can count the number of hellebores - with all of this feedback, I am sure there will be many festooning the paths.

Alex, happy to hear that all is not lost. Mentioning the possible sounding of the death knoll sounded pretty serious! Great idea to visit each other's gardens once all these seedlings are actually blooming! You're close, would love to see your gardens (which must be huge with 2,800 seedlings going in just this spring!) But we can do 'virtual visits' with others via the net, which is cool. Actually I'm planning a trip to Montana this July, primarily to visit one special cyberbud (and take in a few sites along the way) Met on the vines forum, gotta love GW!

Taryn

Final report on my Elizabeth Town hellebores:
90% of the double anemone germinated and 60% of Mrs Betty Ranicar; a very few of each wilted; true leaves on most of double anemone and about 1/3 of Mrs B.R.

Now to find space for them to grow for the next ~3 years until their 'Judgement Day'!

Cheers, Bob.

I had low germination on Mrs Betty Ranicar and double anemone, but great luck with the spotted and picote seeds. Considering I also made the mistake of sowing them in shallow contaieners, I can't complain. I am still seeing some germination, so I have not given up.

On the free seeds, the hybrids that he sent, I got 100% germination.
One the picotee, maybe 50% if I am lucky. On my anemone maybe 50%.
Mary

Has the exchange rate changed that much, or am I missing something else? I don't understand how Taryn got hundreds of seeds for ~US$10 from Elizabeth Town Hellebores; I just took a look at their 2004 list and the cheapest offering is 10 seeds for US$1.70. I'm new to the hellebore world, and ignorant, please educate me.

Prices have gone up quite a bit since I first found out about this site. But that is to be expected for special seed from special plants. 10 seeds for $1.70 is still cheap, just look around if you want to confirm that. You get what you pay for....

"You get what you pay for...." Does that mean you what you got before is not as good as what he's offering now?

No, what I got before was wonderful, but EXTREMELY cheap for Hellebore seeds. I believe he was just starting to sell them abroad at that time and was very underpriced. Now he is getting a bit more competatively priced, but is still well under what you would pay for quality hellebore seeds from many other suppliers.

Taryn