Those are all lovely. I also like "Ice Follies". The only hellebore I have is Ivory Prince and it has been an easy plant to grow with very little care needed. I am trying to start some others from seed. I don't think stating where you bought your plants is advertising. People post all the time about where to buy plants or where they got plants.

Spend a couple of hours reading through some of the chains here on this forum, there's plenty of hellebore information here. There will be a short test later!!

Peter, a shady site being ideal for hellebores is nothing more than received wisdom. Hellebores are shade tolerant, and will grow in quite heavy shade, but will grow with much more vigour and produace more flowers if grown in full sun, especially in the UK. I have seen many hellebore species in the wild across the Balkans, and I can say that without exception, the plants with the most flowers on them are in full sun. There are some colonies where plants are growing in open meadows, which runs into light deciduous woodland, and then into dense woodland which creates deep shade. Plants in the open meadows have many flowers, plants in the light woodland have fewer, and plants in the deep shade often have no flowers at all - just lots of foliage. I have several hundred hellebores here (hybrids & species), and they are all in full sun, in a south facing position. Also esthomizzy, hardy geraniums will make a very nice planting partner for your hellebores. There are several places in the Balkans where hellebores and Geranium phaeum grow alongside one another - very nice to see.

I'm wondering where you got seeds at this time of year? Most people swear by using only fresh seed, but many experienced hellebore growers say it is a matter of correct treatment and patience. As geoforce said, what triggers germintion of these seeds is a warm moist period followed by cold moist, which imitates the seeds maturing in summer and falling to ground to sprout the following spring. If the seed are dried out or were not properly stored before you got them, they may need two cycles before they germinate. The easiest thing is to pot them up and stick them outside and let mother nature take its course (making sure that the pot does not dry out or stay soggy). OR, you could keep them inside in a warm environment (in a plastic baggie with moist medium is convenient) for 8 weeks, then pop them into the fridge crisper for 8 weeks and see if they start to germinate. If not, start the cycle over again. If you are gung ho to try from seed, why not start visiting Elizabeth Town Hellebores in January and buy some of their fresh seed? Pine Knot Farm also offers seed in June. The very few times that I cruised through ebay looking at their seed I didn't see anything cheaper or more interesting, and ET and PK offer fresh seed only. Lots of people here have had good luck with these sources.