Spot the difference: Some spotless new hellebores are being bred in Christchurch from good old British stock

摘要

Breeding hellebores is a time consuming business. Selecting the best blooms and then re-sowing seed, as well as hand-pollinating and keeping careful pollination notes (sometimes for years) until the required characteristics are achieved takes patienceand determination. Hamish and Tim Prebble have been breeding hellebores for the past eight years in their Christchurch nursery, hybridising from Helleborus hybridus (syn. orientalis). In that time they have selected out plants with single flowers and pure colours and have also tried to keep any spots to a minimum. I was assured that spots are harder to breed out than to breed in and that once you've got spots its hard to get rid of them. "When you are breeding hellebores you keep the spots out and then you can breed them in later if you want," said Hamish.