Request for Hellebore forum

There is a lot of interest on Hellebores in the perennial forum... the posts usually have more than a hundred responses. Posts seem to be more frequent during bloom time, but they are also great foliage plants all year round.

Any chance we could get a forum for these lovely plants?

If we do, any way to move the long threads about them from the perennial forum? Tons of great photos and info there.

Thanks!
Jules

I would love one, too. Thanks for suggesting it.

That would be great as we have several different varieties here....And well I may need more...hehehehehe

Blooming time in Mid-Atlantic soon. I may already have one, haven't gotten a chance to get out there and look for sure. They give me a boost at the end of winter, love to see things not only green but also blooming :-)

I've already noticed the disussions picking up in the perennial forum. I think this would be a great time to begin a forum for Hellebores.

I have a friend that hybridizes them, and I picked out several new ones last year. They are doing well, and I am really looking forward to them blooming. I may have a dozen different types and colors.

I notice every year that there is quite a discussion on the perennial forum about hellebores. I'd like to see photos and discussion about them all year. Here in zone 5/6 they are pretty much evergreen, and are interesting all year long.

I would love to see a forum just for hellebores.

I would love to see it.

I would love to see a Hellebores forum. These are one my my new facinations in garden plants.

I would love to see a forum on Hellebores. They're one of my very favourite plants and I'd love to learn more about them. They're evergreen here, although at the moment they're buried under quite a bit of snow, which is a good thing considering the temperature this morning was 0F!

Hellebores are the best!-hardy, blooming when others don't, how can you not love them?

Hellebores deserve the attention, at least as much as daylilies and hostas! They are vastly underused and gardeners need to be more familiar with them. I'm all for a separate forum!!!

I also grow hellebores, and would love to see them have their own forum.

There seems to be a lot of interest in breeding them, if my friend is to be believed. He's crossing between species and so on, trying to create really fabulous huge, finely cut leaves, in addition to beautiful flowers. Mine are buried under snow right now. I'm anxious to see if they will bloom this year, since most were added just a year ago, and were not large plants. My friend had hundreds of pots of them that he had picked his favorite seedlings from.. then let me pick from what was left. I had a blast!

Will have to try to get some photos !!! All the pics I have now are from an old 2mgpx camera, so they are not very good photos. For some reason, have not taken any photos since I upgraded cameras.

I just came in from checking on the hellebores. We had snow, then freezing rain, then snow, so there was a layer of solid ice between the snow. I pulled a lot of that frozen mix away from the plants. Many have new leaves, and saw the very beginning of flower buds on two. One is far enough along I can tell it's one of the intensely dark chocolate burgundy ones. I moved them around last year, to better spots, so hoping they will take off and grow with less competition around them.

I love seeing all the photos in the hellebore posts in the perennial forum. I am hoping that we could include a sticky with basic care and growing tips. I grow them in part to full sun in some places here, and they do fine. I border on zone 5/6.. this year, I guess I am closer to zone 5.

As more and more people start cross breeding them, their popularity should grow. My friend sells his seedlings to garden centers and landscapers for $5 a pot after he's selected his seedlings out of them. He has an area with a lot of trees that are limbed up, and has sand a few inched deep under there for setting pots into. He grows arums, hardy gingers, hellebores, etc. this way. It's pretty good use of space, and they almost take care of themselves.

Here is part of the area... this area is mostly gingers, if I recall.

I am really surprised that there was not more interest in a hellebore forum.

They are fantastic plants, do well here in zone 5/6 with hardly any care. Bloom when nothing else does. Pretty foliage all year and does well in sun, part sun or shade. What more can you ask?

Well, I'll just keep my eye out for hellebore threads on the Perennial forum.

I surprised too, daylily. Considering there are 3 parts of a continued thread on the Perennial forum. "Helleborus - what is it doing?" part one has 262 replies, two has 155, and three has 93. They also come up quite often in the Shaday Gardens forum.

Did anyone post there about this request thread?

Ten requests is what it used to take to get a forum so this thread should get it.

Chuckle..Pirl, that was a looong time ago. Back when we had a thousand or so members, it only took a small show of hands to get a new forum. With over 350,000 members, and over 200 forums, we try to better gauge the longterm interest level before taking the plunge ;o)

Well, at least I was good for a morning chuckle!

Well, I wasn't really chuckling AT you - just taking a stroll down memory lane WITH you!

Quite alright! How is it determined if there's a lasting interest in a particular flower? Just curious.

I tend to try to gauge interest by looking at these areas:

1) I watch threads like this and see if the interest seems sustained over days, weeks (maybe months) and is it building into a swell? Or is it a short-lived "flash in the pan", or the same people posting to the thread keeping it alive?

2) I also run some forum-wide searches to see if there are a lot of threads on the subject. If there are a lot of existing threads, it can make our decision easier. If there aren't a lot of threads, or if they're all congregated around the PF photos forum, that may indicate that the need for information is filled through other areas, such as PlantFiles.

3) I also try to gauge if there's a current forum that *could* fit the bill - and figure out why it's not meeting the need: would a small name change suffice, or perhaps tweaking the introductory paragraph?

Terry, do you ever consider closing forums? There are some that only get a handful of posts virtually every week.

Good question, Victor.

Thanks, Terry.

I love hellebores. I have only 11 or so grown plants plus lots of seedlings sprouting up under the parent plants. It was really exciting to see.

Victor, we have closed forums in the past. We've even re-introduced a few that went on hiatus ;o)

New and improved??!

Errr, maybe refreshed and reinvigorated? ;o)

A little cucumber facial, massage, aromatherapy?

Well, actually I *think* one of the re-introduced forums was gourds, so yes, I guess a little R&R and maybe a cucumber facial did the trick?

Fellow Hellebore lovers -
Has anyone taken advantage of Sunshine Farms special on the H. x hybridus 'Sunshine Selections'? Went to the website in search of Hepatica and couldn't resist the hellebores. I'm curious to see what I end up with.

I just ordered his double, anemone type. I prefer the larger sizes of Sunshine that I have bought from Deer Resistant Plants.

I always want to but never do.

This message was edited Mar 21, 2008 3:23 PM

Funny looking hellebore!

I've ordered quite a few of Barry's Sunshine Strain in bare root seedlings and they were all lovely.

I think a hellebore forum would be an excellent idea. I am pretty sure my 3 little plants would like it if I learned how to take better care of them.

Yes!! I meant to make that request myself. There has been much discussion going on on the PNW forum about Hellebores.

Its a new hellebore cultivar! jk. I didnt have any good hellebore shots so i just posted my pretty iris. I like posting the pics with all my messages. Its a fun way to share the garden.

Go Katie59,
I agree we would like to have a forum for hellebore's , I for one have tried to share but, if you get on someones elses tread about them, you kinda feel like you are not wanted in their space, so to speak. In PNW we all share everything and make all newcomers welcome. Just giving my thought. I lurk on other forum's and jump in to say something, a response from one of to, but never a welcome. Why Is that???