Q What is the best way to propagate hellebores?
Karen S, by email
A CHRISTINE SAYS If you already have hellebores in your garden, you can simply allow the seed capsules to split open and fall onto the soil naturally. This will result in seedlings appearing around the parent plants. These can be potted up and grown on until large enough to plant into their permanent positions.
Alternatively, you can collect the seeds and sow them yourself. Fresh hellebore seeds germinate readily if sown onto seed compost or horticultural sand. Collect the seeds when the capsules start to split and sow immediately into seed trays, then cover with 5-8mm of horticultural grit. Place in a coldframe or at the base of a cool wall and ensure they don’t dry out.
Leave the seedlings in the tray for the first year and feed weekly with a general liquid fertiliser when they start growing. In the second year, pot up the young plants individually and grow on until ready for planting out.
Named varieties don’t always come true from seed, so if you want exact replicas, you should divide the clump instead.