There is only one book on Hellebores(A Gardener's Guide to Growing)generally available. Written by Graham Rice & Elizabeth Strangman, Hardcover, Publisher- Timber Press, Sept. 1, 2001 ISBN 0881925179 Available from Amazon.com and others. A second book by Graham Rice, Hellebores, Paperback, Publisher-Cassell, Oct. i, 2002, ISBN 0304362875 is sometimes available on special order. Have not seen this book, nor any reviews. The Gardeners Guide is a good source of information about Hellebores and their cultivation, with many color photos. Written with a European(UK) point of view. SB

I highly recommend the book by Tyler and Burrell, as well as Judith Tyler's business, Pine Knot Farms, as sources for information and plants. The only other reference that comes close is "The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hellebores" by Rice and Strangman; it's a wonderful book also, but is not as recent (and therefore not as comprehensive) and also is written from the perspective of UK, rather than American, gardeners.

Well, I'm new to this forum and I haven't worked out how to get to the photographs, but I guess from the descriptions that they're in a pretty poor state and suffering from too much competition or poor soil. The biggest single problem that they cannot deal with is poor drainage. Thereafter you should be able to overcome most situations with a bit of TLC and an appreciation of what they like best, you do not need perfect conditions by any means but you have to give them a chance. Like any plant they need a good start, once established they are far better at coping with competition, drought and neglect than in their first season. They prefer a deep rich moisture retentive(but never waterlogged) soil. Thin stony soil or competition from either tree roots or too much surrounding vegetation will result in stunted dwindling plants. They prefer to be shaded from the midday sun but too much shade(low branches) will cause them to be stunted. They're happiest at the woodland edge, or where there is a high canopy, light shade but good light. They will survive in most soils but slightly alkaline will suit them best, so spent mushroom compost with it's lime content is good, otherwise aim for slightly on the alkaline side and you should be OK, they will grow in neutral to slightly acid as well. If you recognise some of these as failings in what you have, try lifting the plants, loosening the soil, adding humus rich compost, raise the level of the soil using logs or something and planting in fresh rich soil above the previous level, they need a depth of at least one spit(forkdepth) of good soil, preferably with the spit below loosened and enriched with compost before planting. Give them a good mulch in the spring when you cut the old leaves back. If you have good soil they will not need feeding, but if not, feed them during the growing season, immediately after the flowering season,May-July. Half meet these requirements and you should have good healthy plants in 18 months. Meet all of them and you will have self sown seedlings, an abundance of flowers, and life long friends. Get hold of a copy of Elisabeth Strangman & Graham Rice's book "The Gardeners Guide to Growing Hellebores" it's what got me started. Cheers, Greenmanplants

I'm glad I found this among the past threads, because I've wondered about this and would appreciate some advice. I got three 'Royal Heritage' strain hellebores in 1998. They are sturdy plants, and produce abundant, lovely flowers. The most beautiful is a soft pink, but year after year, Big Pink produces almost no seed. Its pollen looks good under the microscope and the carpals and ovaries, full of unfertilized seeds, appear normal. At first, I thought Big Pink might be more fertile as it matured and had more carbohydrate reserves to put into seed production. However, while all the hellebores around it, including its 'Royal Heritage' kin, produce abundant and viable seed each year, the majority of carpals and seeds on Big Pink do not develop, and I have never had more than a dozen seeds from it in a year. Hearing that others have 'Royal Heritage' hellebores that are sterile or sub-fertile suggests to me that inbreeding in the strain has produced some individuals that are not good reproducers. Now here's my question. Because Big Pink has such good qualities and is a sturdy plant, I've used it as the mother plant for many of my crosses and I've pollinated many other plants with it. Obviously, it's been an unsatisfactory mother plant, and it doesn't seem to have been a good pollen parent. HOWEVER, out of the few seeds that I have gotten and grown from Big Pink as a mother plant, I've gotten my most attractive cross, which I've nicknamed Valentine, as it first bloomed on Valentine's Day and is a sweet pink. Valentine is a good seed producer and a sturdy plant, and I have been using it heavily in making crosses. Now that I know Valentine's mother is all but sterile, do you think I should eliminate Valentine from my breeding program? Valentine's offspring have not reached flowering maturity yet, but do you think it's likely that the offspring may carry a genetic problem that makes it less likely that they will mature seed? I have selfed Valentine, so as those seedlings mature, genetic problems should become apparent, so in a number of years I'll have some answers. But do you think I should not use Valentine in crosses this year? Or do you think Valentine might be just fine genetically, since it did manage to be "born" and reproduce? Best, Elizabeth