Hellebores seed ?

my Helleborus orientalis 'Metallic Blue Lady' i got from the Co-op last summer bloomed over the winter
and i noticed a different look to the flower lately, which i have never seen before
is it a seed pod ?

Dick

Dick it sure looks like seed pods doesn't it. Or maybe a small alien Manta Ray attached itself to your plant!!!

Doug

That's definitely seedpods, but watch for them when they start to split if you want to keep the seeds. They will drop suddenly, and are difficult to find once on the ground.

If you want to grow them, sow them late July to early August but don't keep them too wet, dry is better, then as autumn comes wet the pot and they should germinate around the end of the year to the new year. Best to do this under cover if you can, they will need cold to germinate, I start mine in a cold greenhouse. Seed that is not fresh will go dormant and can take years to germinate, or it just rots.

thanks Wallaby
i will try to keep track and report on them :-)

Dick

I just found a group of seedlings in the garden and wondered if anyone could identify them?
I think they might be Hellebore because the true leaves seem to be in 3's and have a serrated edge.
I've never had this type of seedling before but they are very close to the spot that I moved an older hellebore from.

What do I do with all the seedlings, they are too thickly sown and on top of emerging spring ephemerals.
When can I pot them up?

They do look like Hellebore seedlings, very healthy ones too! They can be lifted now if you carefully loosen the soil around them they should come out easily , keep in a shady place once potted so the roots have a better chance to establish. Those without a true leaf I would leave until they have one at least, the roots won't have developed enough yet.

I went to a "Hellebore Daze" at Yew Dell Gardens here in KY a couple of weeks ago and they had seedlings sprouting up everywhere. Their recommendation was to wait at least two years to transplant to allow the root system time to develop fully.

Doug

That would be fine Doug if she didn't have other plants in the way, I usually transplant mine when grown in pots a year on as they are a much faster growing type, flowering after two years. Slower maturing types would be fine after two years, I have a potful now which are desperately in need of transplanting after two years!

I'll transplant them for you, just send them my way!!!

Doug

Lol, they are not the fast maturing ones...seed I was sent from your side of the pond!

Thanks wallaby for the information.
I think I'll try to wait until all the seedlings have true leaves and prick them all out together.
In your post it sounds like you planted a number of them in one pot?
I have too many seedlings to do it any other way.

Some of my older Hellebores have been in place for many years and except for the bear claw H.foetidus
never had seedlings. This year I have many at three sites. Is it age that causes them to seed?




This message was edited Apr 10, 2009 8:27 AM

I sow a potful of seed, not all germinate and sometimes field mice get in the greenhouse and eat some, that could be a reason for you not getting seedlings. It's not age which makes them seed, I have first year flowering plants making some. Pollinators and the seasonal weather at time of flowering can make a difference to seed setting, some pods I have seen are empty. It can also be down to which hybrid it is, some make seed better than others.

Yes you have lots there! Slugs like young leaves so you can't have many or any of those, lol. It would be a good idea to put a lot in one pot as the roots can rot if they get too wet when not established, when they look like they are bulking up and competing for space spring is a good time to split them when they are starting into good growth. Species such as H. foetidus are more likely to make a lot of seed as species usually do.

I just dug up and potted 2/36 ct. trays of self-sewn seedlings about a week ago,put them on a shady bench in the greenhouse and they are doing just great.

Way better luck w/ self-sewn than the ones I sewed in pots in the greenhouse but I did read that they could take some time to sprout ...so I wait.

Peggy

Hi bigred,
You have a nice big group of seedlings also.

wallaby,
Thank you for the information on possible reasons seedlings showed up this year and not in the past.
Mice are definitely a problem in my garden, and periodically in the house when the weather turns cool.
It is true my slug population is down, it took years for me to be able to grow wood phlox because they would be eaten to the nubbins by slugs each year and never return. I did use Sluggo one year but the return of fireflies, who eat the the immature slugs when the lightning bugs are in the larvae state, and the appearance of small brown snakes, who also dine on the slugs seems to have controlled the population. I also do a slug toss periodically, any large slugs I find in the garden are thrown onto the driveway to be eaten by the birds.

I am a little concerned with the appearance of so many seedling this year. Hellebore are one of the dwindling number of non natives I had planned to keep in my shade garden because of their evergreen presence and beautiful early bloom. On another thread someone had mentioned that they were out competing the native trillium and might be considered invasive in the future in some areas in the North.
Guess where they seeded in my garden? Right near the Trillium and over the Hepatica and wild ginger and merry bells. They have the advantage because they appear earlier. So the seeding is a mixed blessing and I'll have to think carefully of what to do.I suppose I could cut the flowers and use them for indoor display so they don't seed.

Sempervirens, I had similar concerns when I saw the sheer number of seedlings.
But over a couple years observation, it hasnt turned out to be as much of a problem as I thought.
Ive noticed that, at least in my garden, only a few of them survive as mature plants.

It would be a shame to not enjoy the early flowers of Hellebores, early emerging bees feed on them too. As you said, you can cut the flowers or take off the seed pods once finished.

I too have made it a practise to take slugs elsewhere, over the years the numbers have dwindled to very few. Vigilance is the word, lol, looking under pots and finding eggs before they hatch too. I now find I also have plenty of predators, being organic is the best way to go as slowly but surely nature's life cycle completes the circle. Now I feel guilty if I even take a snail elsewhere, I have both the Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush resident and they eat slugs and snails, they feed their young in my garden too.

Weerobin, that is usually the case when leaving seedlings in place, I haven't had many grow even when I haven't collected seed as I guess some are eaten by mice, then some get eaten by slugs but lately slugs haven't been a problem. I have an occasional self set seedling which has escaped both but I find they grow much more slowly when not given a good start which is no problem either!