Growing Helleborus from seeds

This is yet another subject that I have written about here and there; time to have all info in one place for the Germination page.

First, to emphasize again that all Helleborus are great additions to the garden: cold-hardy, reliable flowering, most are drought resistant, a variety of flower colors, evergreen foliage, plus long lived. Quite an impressive list, isn’t it?! Ah, forgot to say that they are rabbit proof, which is very important for many of us.

Considering perennial plants in general, the most ‘perennial’ among them are the Helleborus and garden peonies.  It happens that they are also the most ‘worry free’ plants when planted in the right location; coincidence?!

Back to the seeds: they mature around mid-June and belong to the category ‘catch them if you can’. Even if you walk around the garden every day, they can still take you by surprise, reason why it is best to use organza bags for capture.

Some will still ‘escape’, fall on the ground and by next spring you will be presented with many ‘baby’ Hellebore seedlings. I missed to collect the seeds from the large, purple Helleborus last year and this spring there was a carpet of seedlings underneath it! Luckily, that I found an adopting parent for them :) otherwise they would have been wasted.

This is just to emphasize that Helleborus seeds germinate easily and in high percentage – when sown at the right time!  i.e. in the summer (or fall depending on the region/country you live in).

Reason for this is that Helleborus is a member of the Ranunculaceae family (like Hepatica, Aconitum…).
All these species share the same seed characteristic: when the seeds are ripe, the embryos are immature. Germination can happen only after the embryos reach a mature stage, requiring specific temperature cycles, usually a sequence of warm/cold moist periods.

Direct sowing
We imitate nature with this well- known sowing method:  work in a fresh layer of good soil mix in the area where you want to sow (close to other plants or you can have a special garden bed for sowings), press the seeds in the soil, add a bit more soil on top and water well. That’s it.

Considering that during the summer we cannot count on rain too often, you will have to water the sowing area, otherwise do not expect any germination!

Somewhere in the spring the seedlings appear. Grow them in place for one season or more (depending on space), then move them to the desired location. They can also be transplanted at a very early stage (cotyledon stage) if needed; I did it many times and it works well.

Sowing in pots

If you have just a few seeds it is best to maximize your chances and sow in pots.
Sow the seeds like for any other species (I only recommend using a bit taller pots), and keep the pots in part-shaded or shaded location; water as needed and protect from critters. For the winter, either place the pots in a cold frame, or ‘plant’ them in the ground – an easy method for ‘winter storage’ about which we discussed many times.

Over the years I sowed various Helleborus seeds until September and they have germinated well in the spring. It means that the warm/moist period from September-late fall was long enough for the seeds requirement (embryo growth); followed afterwards by the cold/moist period (winter). Of course that this will vary depending on your location/region and where you keep the pots. In some cases sowing the seeds even later in the fall may be OK. In most parts of Canada by early November winter can arrive, reason why sowing later than September may not be a good decision.

Buying/Receiving seeds from seeds exchanges in ‘out of sowing optimal time’.
Choices are:
– Sow in pots and be patient, allowing them to naturally undergo the warm/cold periods required for germination; it may take 2+ years and certainly the germination won’t be 100%.
– Begin controlled stratification in moist vermiculite/bags: first a warm period of about  2 months (room temperature is OK) then place the bags in the fridge and keep an eye for the germination.

Yes, when grown from seeds most Helleborus cultivars or species will not all come true to the mother-plants, but the fast flowering allows selecting the best specimens, not to mention the very nice surprises that often wait for us!
They do delight us with their flowers in the spring and seem to remain in flower forever, but I really appreciate the most their foliage, so I will end the post with a picture of Helleborus purpurascens ex. Carpathian Mts. taken this month and the pot of seeds starting to germinate in 2015 (a bit of topsoil was removed to ‘see’ the seeds germinating). They turned out really nice!