Recent Posts

11

Hepatica / Re: Hepatica 2025

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

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

12

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

13

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.   

14

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’

15

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.

16

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.

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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.

18

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

« Last post by Jeffnz on January 19, 2025, 07:00:08 AM »

There are many hits on google on hand pollination of hellebores.

In my experience bees can deliver as good an outcome as hand pollination. Hellebore flowers are receptive to pollen soon after the flower begins to open, to discourage bees the flowers and self pollination can be emasculated. Pollen y transfer is best at the warmest time of the day, and I have made 2-3 pollen transfers to the flower. The pollinated flower can then be covered with a  muslin bag and if successful the ovaries will begin to swell. Parental selection is the key to achieving what you are aiming for with a cross. Spots tend to be a dominate gene when using spotted flowers.
If you are looking for double forms then HP of 2 double forms is the only guaranteed way to get doubles. Crossing an anemone form with a double will usually give a high % of double forms. HPing of 2 anemone forms will give doubles along with anemone and singles.
When hand pollinating it is about beating nature to the task.

19

Bulbs General / Re: Erythronium 2024

« Last post by Tomte on January 18, 2025, 08:57:57 PM »

Herman, E. japonicum is one of the most susceptible to slugs.

Seems to be particularly yummy.. and I planted it in the ground when I got it in 2023. I really should have dug it up last summer, but somehow never managed to. Hope it will survive the next onslaught. So far the winter here was again far too mild, and last year was already very sluggish 

20

Seed Exchange / Re: SRGC Seed Exchange 2024-2025

« Last post by Margaret Thorne on January 18, 2025, 08:03:46 PM »

Many thanks for the seeds sent to us for the Scottish Borders Rock Garden Group. They arrived this morning and will be greatly appreciated by our members at the next meeting. Congratulations to those involved in picking, packing and posting the seed so efficiently and to everyone who contributed to making this another highly successful seed exchange.