it said on the site it was an ongoing thing and they would be adding to it. i'll have to go back and ck now, 'cuase i'll bemad if i wasted time, too, though it was fun looking at ll those hellebores. t

Pam, I'd be very dubious about your argutifolius/niger parentage here, this has definately got the look of lividus about it and I would suspect it being a good form of the nigerliv cross or H ballardiae as it should be known. I fail to see how plant breeder rights can be claimed over this. The parentage you mention, niger and argutifolius(H. corsicus) 'nigercors' has a much greener tint about it...white/applewhite fading to green. Nigercors is by far the more common cross and (IMO)is a better garden plant as it will take full sun and remains heavily floriferous from now through the end of April. I'll be interested to see how hardy and robust your Ivory Prince is. My experience of both this and the niger sternii cross H.ericsmithii(nigerstern), is that they need a bit more cosseting than hybridus or nigercors. Of course there are pink flush variants of niger about though they are pretty rare in the trade butI'll stick with lividus blood for this. All beautiful plants by the way and everyone should try the crosses themselves as the results are variable, especially with the sternii cross as sternii has lots of variants itself. Beware, as once you cross this line you're heading down the serious addiction route!! Also check out some of the species; atrorubens, purpurascens, multifidus, dumertorum, cyclophyllus, for very simple beauty and fantastic foliage. Cheers Greenmanplants

Hi Rb..... It seems to be better this season compared to last :-) After a truly abominable winter for this area, there's a lot of plant replacing going on, which makes it great for the local nursery industry! And with the current state of the economy, a HUGE interest in growing edibles - way more than I've ever seen in all my years in the biz. On a personal note, I moved away from my garden of almost 25 years at the beginning of summer. Saved a few favorites (including a bunch of hellebores) and sold off as much of the rest as I could (place to become a rental property). I will be moving into my new place next month and working with a much smaller scale garden....not getting any younger!! It is in more shade than not, so will be looking closely at some Naylor Creek goodies to add. btw, I moved about 60 minutes closer to them, although they have stopped opening the nursery to drop-in sales :-(

I assume that they were leaf stems(petioles)? Since it's a little early for blooms. Not to worry, won't matter at all. Lots of people cut off the foliage when bloom buds appear, to better display the flowers. Just check to be sure they didn't uproot them, since they are new plantings and the soil is still loose around the roots. Also check for moisture and give them a drink if needed, sparingly, then add a layer of mulch over the root zone, being careful to leave some airspace around the stems. Enjoy the winter flowers! :Rb