WOW, Thanks gardengal! (and mortz8) for seeds. Gardengal, and "mortz" I don't care what color the seeds will produce. My saddest realization was leaving my huge individual hunks of hellebore behind with someone who didn't even WANT Hellebore and who probably discarded them.....oh well, hopefully they've pulled themselves into the ditch where she threw HERS and have surprised and won her over. I've forgiven and moved on with that chapter. Old book. I had some seedlings of crosses that were promising to be interesting. So all seeds and even little seedlings if possibly shipped come true spring would be seriously appreciated. I have the patience and fortitude to wait and see who shows their colors. wow, a black one? And a double? I'll see what Elizabeth Town Hellebore offers and see if I can scrape up change for a package of seeds. As for changing living addresses, unless we hit the Tennessee lottery (which would mean celebrations,a family gathering of epic proportions, and then going to England for a month, and seriously relocating to another spot in the USA more to our consideration and building our own little cottage with at least five acres near a good city but with enough trees and nature to satisfy both of us ) we're here until the end. My e-mail address has been consistent now for a few years. And now that we have high speed internet (and if things go wonky at the house, the city's library is three blocks to the northwest of our house)I am more than willing once you contact me through e-mail of giving you my snail mail addy. Now all I have to do is find the nearest supply of good garden soil (my former source besides my former compost, was at a little nursery and tack shop in Morristown, Tennessee in Eastern Tennessee by the name of Ramsey's who sold Garden Magic soil which was formerly Michigan Peat garden soil. A wonderful black blend of compost, a bit of sand and a trace of vermiculite, not enough to overly notice, but it was soft, loose and rich and you wanted to eat it with a spoon.......I have a few pots that I tipped out here that I'd planted things into and the differences between the pots of Garden magic and a few of my containers of the former older Faerie Holler showed richness in comparrison to this home's soil. BUT, (and it's a smiley faced but) here I have SOIL, not clay like I did in East Tennessee, and I've already got two established compost piles and a huge leaf and pine needle pile that I will mow and grind up with my mulching mower in a few days to reduce the size and compost it down quicker. (my neighbor gifted me with his gatherings one weekend that resulted in a pile that was six feet wide, twenty feet long and seven feet high!) he took me serious when I asked for all his remaining leaves. LOL thanks friends! These seeds will be sown in two established beds of good soil, one at the base of an old willow oak (who's sisters are on either side, three more of impressive girth by my standards, and at least 50 or more feet high with a nice canopy and very healthy) and the other spot is a northern side of the front yard where I tapped into a very nice older bed that I've expanded and raised up and tucked what I hope are the only rhizomes of my perennial begonia into. maddie gardening inside until I see signs of spring again (our temps have been colder than usual)

Are you willing to grow it from seed? Phedar Nursery will probably have seed available. Beware of any plants of H. hercegovinus which do not have known provenance. The only way to ensure you have to authentic plant is to buy a division of a wild collected plant (probably impossible in the US), or to buy a plant grown from wild collected seed. I wouldn't touch an acaulescent species hellebore grown from cultivated seed. The plants within that group hybridise too easily. H. hercegovinus would almost certainly die down in the fall for you, and re-appear in early spring. Strictly speaking, no hellebore is evergreen. the foliage of all hellebores lasts, and is useful to the plant, for only one year. H. foetidus for example gives the impression that it is evergreen because there is always growth to be seen, but that isn't what evergreen means to me.

Don't think it is the hellebore - I've never been able to discern any scent from H. argutifolius and even H. foetidus is only stinky of the foliage or stems or other parts are bruised or crushed. I'd look elsewhere for the source of the "aroma" :-)) By this time of year, I would have also cut off any old flower stems....they probably look pretty funky, usually attract hellebore aphids once they go over and might be contributing to the aroma if they are more or less composting in place. btw, being native to the rocky cliffs and open areas of Corsica and Sardinia, Helleborus argutifolius is the most sun tolerant of the hellebore species and actually will be more upright and bloom heavier if planted in a sunnier rather than shadier location. It is also extremely drought tolerant as well.

It seems that Helleborus argutifolius acts a bit differently in a California situation. I rarely prune out older blossomed stems on this plant, and leave it to act more like a shrub. Maybe after 3 to 4 years the older stems might start to decline, and get pruned back to the ground, but the plant generally acts like a shrub here. Only regular pruning involved is to remove spent blossoms when they lose their green color. Does well in sun or shade here, but not in dense shade. I love this plant, which along with the chartreuse flowers of Euphorbia characias wulfenii, which is also in bloom here at the same time, usually starting as early as December here. Under California conditions, most of the other Hellebore species which are not perennially evergreen/shrubby do best here with morning sun or dappled shade; full sun tends to cook them.