Ok, I admit, I have never tried these, so ok, tell me about them, show me the bloomers, bout the earliest thing to bloom in my zone is a snowdrop long about March and if I am realllly lucky the end of Feb.
Whats their care, whats their pests? Where do they like to grow? I know absolutely NOTHING about these plants other than they are really kind of pretty!
Would they make for a houseplant? (See, I told you, I knew nothing! NOTHING!)
Hellebores for 2010 - Whos doing them?
I only have 2 colors
White
And...
burgundy...can't find picture of open flower
trays of babies to be potted up next week
I'd call them easy and pretty foolproof, but they do take a long time to get to flowering size - maybe 3rd year. A good shade plant. I've heard that seeds don't have a long shelf-life, but plants will self-seed in multitudes, and baby plants will most generally start right under the mother plant. I usually move them when they're 1-2 inches tall. They ARE one of the earliest bloomers.
edited for sp.
This message was edited Nov 12, 2009 1:37 PM
Yup,self sewn seedling are what those babies in the trays are.
I had a clump of the white about 8-10 yrs old that look spectacular this year but I made the mistake of letting my garden club come in and dig some perennials that desperately needed thinning. I told them...even pulled back the leave on the mother palnt to show them the seedlings and said"dig up as many seedlings as you want" I didn't know until the next day,they dug up about 2/3 of the mother plant. Never again will I let anyone in my gardens w/ a shovel unsupervised. I have a 1 1/2 acres of yard and I was on the other side of the house w/ part of the group...ARGH!...and I grew it form seed...ARGH AGAIN!
I definitely understand that AARGH. You were so generous and they were so thoughtless. Well I guess they'll learn their lesson by not being invited back unsupervised. Too bad I'm not nearby. I'm very good at thinning (licks drool from corners of mouth)!
Some japanese painted ferns"Ursla's Red"and "Burgundy Bliss" went missing too and clump of dwarf varieigated miscanthus"Morning Light" that would probably be sold as a 10 gallon in the nursery all but a small clump you could circle w/your thumb and forefinger was dug up. Now mind you I'm not saying they were being devious as I did say dig out as much ostrich fern as you want and it was growing close to JPF and there was an all green miscanthus I told them to take and a lot of them are new gardeners so they probably just didn't know the difference between one or the other....but still...Never again!
Learned that lesson long time ago. sometimes if you dont draw them a picture or hover over them.. well the big ARRRGH happens.
I figure if I gotta supervise them so close, then I may as well do it my self.
Well, those are nice looking P! So is now the best time to plant them in the garden or what? I have a spot in the woods I can try them. But I think I best not plant them by Goliath! Course Goliath might be my cure all to the party wanting to dig them up. Goliath is my giantuous Poison Ivy plant. I keep him around for grins. Dang plant gotta be 50 years old, least 35-40 foot tall if not a day or as old as that old oak hes leaching off of.
So, ok, could I winter them in a pot? Outside?
They'll bloom around Christmas into the new year but it'll be late May-early June before seeds are ripe for the picking but I usually just let them drop then dig up seedlings later when they have about 6 true leaves. There evergreen and very cold hardy so you wouldn't ahve to pamper them.
Seedlings in picture are '07 seeds taht self sewed. I didn't even to bother to pick '09 seeds so I probably have a bunch of seedlings rght now.
Well,that's what I get for trying to get out of some digging but it won't happen again.
It might be different here, but this is a great time to plant them here. Ours don't typically bloom until January . . .
katie, thats gorgeous~
The Hellebores seem to do really well here and I have way too many of them - many that haven't been taken out of their pots yet. I will finish planting them this winter.
This is a picture of the buds on my established plant in January. The cold and the wet didn't even seem to phase them.
Thanks for your comment on the picture. I just discovered the macro on my camera. This is actually from a Hellebore at my brother and SILs.
Not such a great picture. This is Heronswood Kingston Cardinal (which I got in Kingston). I got one blossom last year - I'm looking forward to more this year.
I don't know what this one is. I think it's a pretty common one, but I like it. Easy.
And I grow h. foetidus just for the foliage. The flowers are more bizarre than pretty.
Like the foliage on the h.foetidus.I'm big into foliage so a plant has more than one feature to offer in the landscape. I'd like some of the ones with silver foliage and the Gold Bullion if I thought it would do well in my zone. I've read some accounts that it doesn't like our heat and humidity.
Neat!
I like the foetidus as well as the single flower type.
I was given many last season and they bloomed into late summer.
I cant wait for spring '10
This is a black hellebore
My foetidus keeps rotting - I think it needs lighter soil and more sun, maybe than what I typically have. Corsican hellebores can take full sun at my place (PNW full sun isn't as harsh as some areas), and seem to be pretty tough.
There is definitely a difference between them.
Last year I saw some mature stands of white, pink, and green hellebores in a garden and was really taken by them. I ordered some online, which seemed pricy at $50 for three 4" pots. They certainly didn't flower in 2009, but the deer didn't bother them, and I did notice several weeks ago that they looked like they had settled in nicely. I hope they flower in 2010. The pictures here remind me why I wanted some. Pam
The new cultivars can be pricey. But now you can find them at places like Home Depot and Lowe's. And they aren't that hard to germinate if you have nice, cool soil and a cold period. Looking forward to seeing your pictures!
this was a Mothersday Present to me from me.
iT WAS IN A GALLON POT $30.00
Oh Lord, Ima gonna hate to see wht Alsip asks on them! Prepare me someone dare I faint!
Whats Alsip?
I want more and more Cyclamin
One of my fav upper end nurserys.. High priced and lovelies...you cannot walk out of there spending something and nothing is cheap.
Well, I have managed to kill off a couple of these so I guess I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong...they haven't been 'easy' for me. Mine were potted in MG potting mix and kept in a partial sun location on my covered patio. I thought maybe I'd overwatered but if water and cold don't bother them any idea what I'm doing wrong? Too much sun? I have a few new ones that I just got and I'd like to avoid making the same mistakes. Is there a chance the foliage just died back to the root ball and it will come back or should I just pull the whole thing up?
thanks for any advice,
d
This message was edited Nov 14, 2009 8:46 PM
There definitely is a chance they will come back. If anything, I'd make sure that the plant has good moisture and good drainage and stays as cool as possible most of the time.
I have several varieities, including the Kingston cardinal. None of mine ever bloom before March. There are so many different varieities of Hellebores, that there are surely many to fit everyone's different situation.
Pine Knot Farms sets up a triple booth every year here at the Hardy Plant Society's annual sale. They bring only Hellebores to the sale, a few hundred varieties. The booth is just about the most popular one at the show, always packed 4 and 5 people deep.
That's encouraging! Thanks Katie...
So Alsip is a local for you?
Not an online mailorder nursery?
Here are a bunch of h. foetidus seedlings I noticed yesterday.
These are second year Fotidus's from Deer Repellent plants
Alsip, huh? They do tend to be over-priced but do carry some of the newer, trendier plants. Usually, their plants are pretty healthy. For me, it's a local thing - IL and IN - unless there are more out there.
I'm patiently waiting for some 'Sunshine Selections' to reach blooming size. Got a good deal on them but am anxious to see what colors the flowers are. Not sure if they're far enough along to bloom this coming spring but certainly by the year after.
Barry Glick "Sunshine Selections"?
Like CindyMzone5 said, Alsip is a local thing.. Illinois, Indiana.. big outfit, lots of stuff, pretty pricey, but they also have some good deals too. The house plants actually are quite reasonable but then size too can be relative. You really cant bark too much about the quality as it is hard to find a "mangy" plant. They do very good maintenance on them for presentation. Im not gonna pay their prices on the perennials though. I will sooner start it by seed myself before paying that deep. And I do feel the annuals prices are a bit overboard too. But they do get some nice different plants unlike Lowes, Home Depot, K mart or those box places. To me the big box are the same old same old stuff everywhere. I like looking for the little mom and pops! They always have something there the boxes dont. (Mainly service, but the plants are different too) Just my opinion. I dont mind paying more when the service comes with it but yano I have been in some nurserys that well one for instance that well, they barked how much variety they had and this that and the other thing and I went in to get some plant advise and was flat out told well, I didnt buy it there and so they could not help me.. um, pardon me, I did not want any replacement, just advice and that was a real turn off. Guess given advice on care was not their virtue. Never went back.
I like mom and pops too. We have a nice garden center here where I bought th mothersday present for myself.Bristols
bigred- yep - Barry Glick. I've always been intimidated by Hellebores and they cost a lot! Thought I'd try the 1 yo seedlings and see if I have the aptitude to grow them. Have H. orientalis from a gardening friend back in '94 that's never been moved from it's original spot by a concrete wall. It has multiplied slowly over the years and I moved about 18 seedlings this year from it.
BB - where's the rude garden center so I never go there? You're right - Alsip doesn't "do" mangy plants but I'll only buy there what I can't find elsewhere. Also agree about the big box stores but have gotten some nice bargains on $3 starter shrubs at Lowe's (Northern Lights azaleas, Pieris, etc).
Barry had a huge sale one year on hellebores seedlings. I missed out on it 'cause I'd already shot my budget.
I need to go tell Barry I have a new email. Haven't heard from him since my arkansas.net addy bit the dust.
Peggy