Two Historic Hellebores

Fellow garden bloggers have been proudly showing their lovely hellebore for several weeks now . It is awesome how long the flowers last and they get ever more beautiful every day .

I picture my unexampled acquisition : Helleborus x ericsmithii‘Shooting Star ’ on 15th January for Garden Blogger ’s Bloom Day . Today , week after , it is still seem beautiful as the pink is now set off by jade green .

I have delight admiring all the variations of blogging admirer ’ Hellebores . There are so many beautiful hybrids usable today that we are quite spoilt for choice . Hellebores are still expensive but not as good as they used to be when they were bred clonally and breeders had to wait a foresightful time to build up up line . These Hellebores never seemed to live long because they were often rickety and suffered from viruses and they would bit by bit decline .

One of the groundbreaker of Hellebore breeding by the cross pollination of carefully selected variant was the great plantswoman : Elizabeth Strangman of Washfield Nursery . She generously release her techniques in her book:‘The Gardener ’s Guide to Growing Hellebores ’ . Her nursery was one of the most exciting Ihave ever inflict . It was full of rare and exquisite treasures .

Helen Ballard , Eric Smith and Frederick Stern did some amazing hybridising of Hellebores but Elizabeth Strangman travelled extensively bet for Hellebores to use in her breeding course of study . She come upon some double ones grow in the wild in Yugoslavia and used these as the basis for her breeding of doubles .

There are plenty of plenty of lovely double Hellebores around today : Robin White of Blackthorn Nursery and John Massey of Ashwood Nursery have take up where Elizabeth result off and breed some superb doubles . I believe there are some American and German stock breeder produce beautiful double too . Years ago when I first give away the late Elizabeth Strangman ’s fantastic nursery at Washfield in Kent , stunt man were an unusual sight , as was the awesome people of colour range of a function she had spawn . apricot , yellows , slate , plum , spotted , speckled and picotees . They were all new to me and all adorable .

I still cherish the double Hellebore I bought that twenty-four hour period more than 18 geezerhood ago . It has been dug up and move several time as I have moved home . There are doubles far more beautiful than this now but this one will always be special to me . It just get bigger and well each year and is a admonisher of a cracking plantswoman without whom we would not have the wonderful range of Hellebores we have today .

Another special Hellebore which I have had for more than 20 twelvemonth and dig up and moved around with me isHelleborusorientalis‘Petsamo ’ . it just better with eld . I can not discover who bred this adorable hybrid or when . Netta Statham mentions it in her book ; ‘ My plant life and other Friends ’ . She say she got it from the Suffolk gardener Fred Barcock and mine come in from Fred Barcock ’s garden . It is quite distinctive with its very expectant , pointed , star - like petals . I believe Roger Harvey used it in his breeding of the endearing ‘ Bradfield Star ’ loanblend . I love it and keep it aside from my other Hellebores so its rare offspring will come dependable . It does n’t seem to seed around as much as the rest of its kindred .

If you would like to judge your handwriting at crossbreed Hellebores then Elizabeth Strangman ’s book is an fantabulous scout .

31 Responses toTwo Historic Hellebores

give thanks you for telling us about Elizabeth Strangman ’s book . It looks most interesting . hellebore are astonishing works . In the first years I was gardening , they were thought to be not hardy and so we did not see them in Ontario gardens . They can go cold winter , especially if there is a C cover . They simply blossom later . They are popular here too now .

It was very interesting to record about the pioneering breeder of Hellebores in this post . Thanks ! It ’s bully to have plants that are especial to us for whatever reasons . Your two are both adorable !

Sigh . I love Hellebores and ca n’t waitress until the snow melts to see mine . 🙂 They are such amazing plants – so hard to believe they survive the cold winters and then pop up earlier than just about every other plant . I check – they look great through all their stages !

Both beauties Chloris although I ’m especially drawn to ‘ Petsamo ’ with its nappy white flowers . Netta Statham ’s book peradventure a slim loudness but it earn for fascinating reading material .

Two Historic Hellebores