Recent Posts

11

Seeds Wanted / Re: Do you know how hellebores are pollinated?

« Last post by Silvy on January 22, 2025, 09:55:17 AM »

thank you very much .. I really hope to be able to complete this project, I have no shortage of enthusiasm, nor space, I have double hellebores of different colors, I just have to learn how to pollinate well (which I didn't do very well last year) .. but now with a little more information I hope to be able to pick the most suitable moment for the pollen to mature (what I lack .. or at least I hope not is the waiting time for flowering, because it takes at least three years from sowing to see the first flower and it is not a given that it will establish itself immediately .. and now I am 78 years old ... but I hope to hold on for a while longer    )

I thought about doing these crossovers..what do you think?

hypothesis 1 ....Helleborus Double Ellen White Spotte with Helleborus or. 'Double Ellen Purple

hypothesis 2 ....Double Ellen Picotee with Helleborus x hybridus ‘Double Ellen Red’ (in my opinion the least likely to get close to the colour I would like to obtain...the second one is too light)

hypothesis 3.... Double Ellen Picotee Helleborus with . 'Double Ellen Purple

12

Galanthus / Re: Galanthus January 2025

« Last post by Stefan B. on January 22, 2025, 07:56:19 AM »

This winter, I have snow in my garden since Christmas, that's good but... I want to enjoy my snowdrops too. This week I hope that will happen.



Thanks Leena for these lovely ones "bambini"! They appeared from the ground already in December.

13

Hepatica / Re: Hepatica 2024

« Last post by Starking007 on January 21, 2025, 08:19:31 PM »

H.japonica ex 'Ryaugetsu' - a Dream!

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Hepatica / Re: Hepatica 2025

« Last post by Starking007 on January 21, 2025, 08:14:42 PM »

I can't make it to Vienna - unfortunately...

15

Flowers and Foliage Now / Re: January 2025 in the Southern Hemisphere

« Last post by fermi de Sousa on January 21, 2025, 07:51:27 PM »

Some more Allium flavum ssp tauricum
cheers
fermi

16

Seeds Wanted / Re: Do you know how hellebores are pollinated?

« Last post by Jeffnz on January 21, 2025, 06:49:18 PM »

Modern hybrids have a complex gene pool developed over many generations of hand pollination.
You can be sure that a  double x double and an anemone x double will give predominantly doubles, a single x double may give a double but often anemone and singles. The % of full doubles and anemone forms is dictAted by the double used to make the cross.
When crossing singles with doubles it can take 2-3 generations to achieve a full double, back crossing of an anemone with the double will give the best chance of doubles. Some doubles can have low fertility as well as poor pollen production, this I put down to line breeding.
Colour is more difficult to predict, especially when the parent colours are very different. Spotting is said to be dominant but again it depends upon the parents used.
My suggestion is that you make both crosses and see what the outcome is, that is the excitement of creating your own crosses as you will end up with plants that are unique to you. Reverse crosses are also a way of understanding the dominant genes of the parents.
You should get up to 30 seeds per cross, if you have space than you can grow on all seedlings to flowering, this will give you the ultimate indication of which of the parents is the dominate parent, I have never had the space to do this. I select seedlings that show early vigour and only grow these on to flowering.
Be warned 'breeding' hellebores can become an addictive past time, it has taken me nearly 3+ decades to kick the habit. Good luck, I am sure that you will find the process both rewarding and frustrating.   

17

Seeds Wanted / Re: Do you know how hellebores are pollinated?

« Last post by Silvy on January 21, 2025, 09:23:28 AM »

many thanks for the answer .. in fact I have obtained several variants from the pollination of bees, but I would like to make one of my own to be able to obtain the color of a hellebore that I had purchased, very small, many years ago, that I liked very much, but that I lost before I could even plant it in the flowerbed, due to a very cold winter

it is called "helleborus hibrydus double hellen sflash" .. it has a double flower on the burgundy red with some white streaks and a little guttate




now I would like to understand what types of colors I should choose to cross to obtain one as similar as possible, because I found a site that explains a bit of genetics rules, which however left me a bit confused

https://ibridatoripercaso.blogspot.com/p/genetica-della-rosa.html

I tried to make some hypotheses

if I cross a Helleborus Double Ellen White Spotte with a Helleborus 'Double Ellen Purple ..could I get closer?

which one could get me close to my final result?

or is it better to have a -Double Ellen Picotee with a Helleborus x hybridus ‘Double Ellen Red’

18

Seed Exchange / Re: SRGC Seed Exchange 2024-2025

« Last post by ian mcdonald on January 20, 2025, 11:21:07 AM »

My seeds have arrived. Thanks for the hard work by the seed team.

19

Seeds Wanted / Re: seed shipments

« Last post by Jeffnz on January 19, 2025, 08:12:47 PM »

New Zealand does not require a phyto cert for seed imports, as long as the seed species is on the approved import list.

20

Seeds Wanted / Re: seed shipments

« Last post by Vinny 123 on January 19, 2025, 08:59:11 AM »

The EU is a free trade area - so you can send anything, anywhere within the EU.
For the moment, seeds can be sent to the UK - they keep postponing the laws.

Most of the rest of the world require phyto-sanitary certificates, although some countries do not, and small quantities of seed may easily go through postal systems, undetected.

L'UE è un'area di libero scambio, quindi puoi inviare qualsiasi cosa, ovunque all'interno dell'UE.
Per il momento, i semi possono essere inviati nel Regno Unito, ma continuano a rinviare le leggi.

La maggior parte del resto del mondo richiede certificati fitosanitari, anche se alcuni paesi non li richiedono, e piccole quantità di semi possono facilmente passare attraverso i sistemi postali, senza essere rilevate.