Hellebore Seedlings

Around April last year I sowed 2 trays of seeds collected from hellebores in my mum's garden; knowing they take their sweet time in germinating I popped them in a shady corner under a bush.

Then out of nowhere; almost 12 months later, several dozen seedlings have popped up over the last week or so...happy days ..looks like I'll have plenty of baby hellebores now

"Patience is a virtue"

 

Excellent! Did you water them during that time? or just abandon them?

I get a couple of dozen, tiny, self-sown Holly seedlings from under a small group of silver Birch each Autumn. The bird must love sitting there having a sing-song ... I say "thank you very much" each time I dig them up and pot them on ... but I'd love to try to get some things of my own choice growing on somewhere like that.

 

So glad to read hellebore are slow to germinate, I have 2 pots sown with seed kindly donated by bilbo675 which haven't shown any sign of life yet, after sowing last autumn. Will persevere with looking after them now I've seen the photo

 

Hi all, I watered them when they looked dry but apart from that I just let nature take its course; the trays haven't been moved since I put them there last year so they probably have been frozen solid at some point...

 

I find fresh seed is very easy to germinate, but mice love the seeds so you are really lucky to have kept a tray or two outside. They are also bu....difficult to prick out. They have very delicate root systems and loathe to the point of death having the baby roots dry out even in the slightest. The given advice is to wait until they have proper leaves before moving them on and making sure that they stay moist at the roots whilst doing so. They take 2 to 3 years to reach flowering size and then most of them will be less than good colours.

 

They have self seeded prolifically in my mum's garden and when they do flower they're not too bad colour wise, pretty much the same as the parents (deep pink/purple or white), some though are a little pale and washed out, seemingly hybrids of the two.

 

Well done, must go and check mine that I put behind the shed a year ago

 

Alas, not a seedling in sight :(

 

I have today transplanted the seedlings (now with their first true leaf and extensive roots for the size of seedling) out of the tray on the right to individual pots, 40 in total, tomorrow I'll do the other tray.......if all these survive and grow on I'll be snowed under with them..

 

Today I completed the transplanting of the seedlings, quite an easy job as I tapped the whole lot out of the tray and carefully seperated their roots; here they are all 60 of them




I do still have a couple of dozen spare that are currently in some moist compost, if anyone wants to take a chance on them i'll split them into a couple of lots and send them wrapped in a little moist compost and kitchen towel. PM me with details..

 

Well done Bilbo. All you need now is a moderately large wood to plant them out.

 

Update.....my little Hellebore seedlings are coming along brilliantly, no losses at all and all growing strongly...