helleborus?

Anybody seen some of these in the stores for reasonable prices or am I too late in the season? I've seen these online everywhere and I'd love to have some of my own.

The ones I see in the stores are way too costly. I have a couple and am hoping to learn how to divide them so I can start either spreading them around to cover more area or trade them to have more variety. They came with the house, so I really don't know too much about them yet.

Gwendalou

That is a very pretty one, Gwendalou.
As for dividing them, I helped divide them last fall for this spring gardening club plant sale. Plus I just received a paper from a nursery that gave a talk the other nite at the gardening club about hellebores.
It says you can dig it up, find the main stalk, and divide into parts but leave at least 3 leaves/stalks to each piece. So that was the interesting part.
But they are easy to divide. Just take a sharp shovel or knive and cut thru the center to divide.
Carol

I saw some of the Royal Heritage at the local WalMart. They weren't even priced yet but I grabbed the two healthiest ones.

I am a total failure at hellebores. I moved one last year to a new shade bed hoping it would perk up- it did, but only marginally. There is a tremendous display of them scattered in the gardens as you enter the WA Convention center- all upright and perky. Did anyone see them going to the NW Flower and Garden Show? Mine are sulky with foliage and blooms low to the ground- really unimpressive.

Gwendalou- I just saw an article in a new magazine about dividing them. Give me a day to find it and I'll email you or post a synopsis here.

I saw them at the NW garden show. They were simply everywhere!! I can't imagine why yours are doing poorly, Annie. Are they maybe planted too deeply? Or maybe something's attacking them, although I can't think what. They are fairly resistant to things.

I have divided mine just like I do hosta, but they don't need dividing very often and sometimes take awhile to settle in after division.

Jburesh, you aren't too late to get some. Keep your eyes open at Home Depot and Lowes, and, I guess, Walmart. Last year Lowe's had the Heritage Strain for about 8$ for a gallon pot. I'm sure they'll have them again, since they are getting to be very popular. Heck, at the flower and garden show, it looked like they were the most popular plant! I bought a yellow one from Big Dipper farms.

By the way, I just received an order from Big Dipper Farms and I was extremely pleased with everything they sent. It was all very well rooted and healthy looking, was well packed, and came with a detailed list with descriptions of everything in the order. Some of the roots were so well developed that I had to pot up in gallon sized pots. They have a very nice selection of stuff that is sometimes hard to find, and they are in Washington state, so you know it will get to you quickly. Check out their Hellebores. They had some good ones.

I was given a small rooting of a white flowered hellebore about 4 years ago. I put it in a partially shady spot. It looked fairly questionable for a long time, but just tIhis spring has flowered and is admired by everyone who stops by. I'm glad I didn't dig it up and replace it in despair. Maybe they are just very slow growing?

Yes, hellebores are supposely slow. Tho mine have bloomed just after being planted the first year.
Annie, is the soil good where they are planted? Mine are in good soil and mulched good too.
Carol

Hi Carol,
Mine started out in a very enriched shade bed with lots of compost, lots of woods humus for hostas and astilbes. It gets morning sun about 3-4 hours, then all shade. One is in a fairly dry spot, but gets watered like the hostas and astilbes.

I moved the other hellebore and did raise it up as far as planting depth. That one is doing a bit better but still not very upright. Maybe I just have a low, floppy variety? They are 6-7 yrs old and have bloomed every year, but always low to the ground on short stems.

Here's one article on lenten roses. They sound sooooo easy!
http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/2005-perennial-plant-of-the-year.html

Thanks all! I'll be out and about this weekend and will see if I can come home with some. lots of great information in this thread.

Mine are all fruzen glajen this year and look very floppy. Too cold for too long. They will perk up later, but many of the bloom stems have bent so far over they are kinked. They won't come back. They can take 2 or three years to get a good clump established.

Next to one plant I have a bout 60 seedlings that are between one and two years old. I'll be potting them up this spring and they'll be available for trades. The flower color is unknown. The parent plant is the apple green, but there are several purple colored ones nearby.

jb

Junior,

I'd love to trade if I have something to interest you. I'll have some glads, double anemones, twinkle toes and ranunculus extra once my fall orders come in.

jacqui

Jacqui,

Sounds good. By fall they should be settled into the pots and ready to plant out. I could use some anenomes.

Let's talk again when the seasons change.

jb

Today at Home Depot : Gallon size Helleborus Ivory Prince, really well developed plants with lots of blooms and more coming - 9.00$ a gallon! Better get a move on before they are sold out!

My son really liked my solid purple Hellebores so when I was moving them to our new home last fall I divided mine and gave him several. I have read they don’t like to be moved but I have moved mine several time. Some of them took a year to grow big and healthy again. After giving some away I found some at Homedepot last fall and bought myself another one. I just love to see flowers blooming in January. If they have good soil, not in the direct sun,they are very easy to grow.
Good Luck

I still have to plant my out. I'm enjoying them on the deck right now. Do I need to add lime to the soil first? I have good soil where I plan to put them but everything there now likes soil more on the acid side (hostas, etc.).

No, you definitely do not have to lime the soil for hellebores. They'll do great where you have the hostas, etc.

Thanks Pixydish!

I recently bought some Hellebores and learned that they easily reseed. In January you will see the new seedlings next to the mother plant. You should dig the seedlings up and move them away from the mother plant, otherwise when the roots of the two plants intertwine, it will make the color of the mother plants spring flowers muddy.

There are some gorgeous Hellebores here:
http://www.northwestgardennursery.com/hellebore.html

Wow, those are gorgeous. Gee, I wish these plants weren't so expensive. Doesn't anyone want to do a coop for hellebores from this nursery?!?

Gwendalou

I'm not sure I know what you mean, Gwendalou. Are you asking if anyone would like to go together to order plants from Northwest Garden Nursery? (They do have BEAUTIFUL colors for their Hellebores)
Their website says they sell on-site retail only, and some wholesale to established nurseries. Are you talking about another nursery?

ann7667,

have never heard that seedlings can chang the color of the original mother plants. If they are growing close you will get a mix of flower colors, which could give you that impression, but the mother plants flowers shouldn't change color. Where did you hear or see this?

Thanks,
jb

Pixydish, over in the coop section, there are coops for different types of plants coming from specific locations. Someone contacts the nursery and asks to arrange for a large quantity discount. Then a lot of people order to get the volume up to get the discount. I have just purchased some irises from a coop there recently. Thought someone might want to do one for hellebores!

Gwendalou

Ahhhh! Yet another benefit of DG! I have not checked out the Coop forum ( I spend so much money anyway, I'd REALLY be in trouble if I had that forum bookmarked.) But it would be interesting to do a coop at that nursery if someone lived down there close to it.

Does anyone have or seen the beautiful new Blue Hellebores? I saw it in the paper and it is for sell at extra perennial nursery. That nursery is only about 15 miles but have been sick since I saw the article. Would really like to have one for my collection. However if I feel ok I plan a trip to Joy Creek Nursery this Sunday. Have read about it for years but was such a long drove from former home but It is also about 15 from here .

Blue Hellobore? I'll have to check out Joy Creek. I ordered from them last year. They have interesting stuff, but it was very small. Probably better to go to their nursery in person. I'll have to check out their site for the blue hellebore, though. Sounds interesting.

Edit:
I've searched around the web and can find a couple of cultivars with the word 'blue' in them, like 'blue lady', but they don't look exactly blue to me. More of a mauve or maroon.
But I found this interesting website for bulk purchases:
http://www.nwbulb.com/acatalog/info.html

They have a lot of interesting stuff - the hostas alone are worth it. I wonder if people in this forum would be interested in placing an order together? There's only a 100$ minimum and plants are sold in groups of 25. For people in Washington, there would be no sales tax (Gee, I guess people in Oregon don't pay sales tax, either!).
If there is enough interest in this, I will start a new thread for it.

This message was edited Apr 8, 2006 10:29 AM

This message was edited Apr 8, 2006 10:50 AM

Pixydish, count me in! I expanded the bed under my front yard Maple and $ permitting there's lots of room for more hostas. The ones there are doing wonderfully. They're all WalMart discounts I got last year.

Pixy, I'm in too. If I read the site correctly it looks like the hosta are about $1 each and the helleborus about $2 each? Then they sell them in a bag of 25? That is right up my alley. :)
I would be interested in hosta and helleborus myself.

I'm interested.

Gwendalou

I'll start a new thread and make a list of the plants I'm interested in. Others can post what they are interested in, too and we'll see how it pans out. This looks like such a good deal! I've never done this kind of bulk-buy-with-others thing, so if anyone has experience with it and can give me some guidelines, I'd be grateful for a dmail.
I'll need a day to get the list together and then I'll make the thread and we can compare lists. They have tons of plants available, so it's going to be hard to keep this to a mild roar!

This message was edited Apr 8, 2006 9:10 PM

Are we just looking at hostas and helebores? Cuz there are some other plants I'd love to get, such as this filipendula - http://www.nwbulb.com/acatalog/filipendula.html.

Gwendalou



This message was edited Apr 9, 2006 10:40 AM

Oh No, not just hostas and hellebores! I have a very lengthy list of things I'm interested in, too. I'm starting the thread now and I'll list the things I'm already interested in, and people can add to that list. I'll post the link to the new thread here when it's done.

All righty then.

Gwendalou

P.S. Do you know what the shipping would be? I looked around their site but couldn't really see anything definitive. Their would be shipping of the orig order to you and then the shipping of individual plants to each of us, right?

I hate shipping charges! They always just kill the budget.

Gwendalou

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/590185/ Go to this site to see the 'rules' and place your orders.

I don't think the shipping will be too bad, because they will be sending bare root. I'll dmail them and get a sample shipping quote just to give us a reference. But, if we all split the shipping, then it should not be too bad.

Do you all have such big yards you can buy 25 of 1 plant or are you going to trade them ?

Here is the Description of the blue flower I saw in the paper, from extra perennial garden:
Helleborus – Slate Blue Strain – Mardi Gras Parade Large blend of very dark blue-grey flowers, and the stunning deep burgundy color of the new leaf growth which darkens to deep green as it matures.

Was that hellebore on the site we're ordering from?

No, we aren't each ordering 25 of each plant. We're splitting them among everyone who orders. You just say how many of each plant you want, you don't have to take 25, you can take 1 or 2 or 6 or 10 or whatever! That's the beauty of teaming up.

Gwendalou

Exactly. but the only thing is that we would need to order 25 of each plant, so if one person wants 3 of them, and one person wants 2 of them, that's not enough to place an order for that particular plant. Go the the website linked above to see how it's going to work.

In reply to the 1st question by jburesh. Last weekend, I picked up 2- 3gallon H. Orientalis "Royal Heritage" off of the clearance shelf at the nearby Top Foods & Drugs on their Garden sidewalk. The 4" pots were $2.25, the 1 gallons were $3.75, and the 3 gallon size were $7.50 ea. They were past top bloom, but new leaves were popping up, and one spent bloom was fat with seed.

I love Spring.
-Janine

This message was edited Apr 13, 2006 9:51 AM