The eBay Hellebores

This last week or so has been the week that everything seems to have gone wooooooooosh - in 2009 it happened in February! We came back from our weekend in the Lake District to find greening and leafing abound. Moreover the eBay hellebores had come into their own. Last year my friend D. who is a hellebore fanatic, mentioned that she had had ordered some hellebores via eBay and was pleased with the quality of the plants she received. Knowing how discerning she is, I was tempted and put in an order myself with the same seller initially for five anemone centred and five picotee hellebores. The plants were two year old seedlings and arrived quickly, looking healthy, happy and with good rootballs. The seller was generous and threw in extra plants. I was so impressed with their quality that I ordered another five plants - doubles this time. I must admit that I felt I was taking a bit of a risk as I would have to wait at least another year or possibly longer for the plants to flower. However price wise they were very reasonable (under £3.00 per plant) and I thought that they would be worth taking a gamble on. Well now the majority of the plants have flowered this year and I am delighted with my purchases. There are the spotty and dotty doubles ~





anemone centred ~



the picotees ~


and possibly my favourite this plain ivory double flower ~



Now to decide where to plant them. Most of them will be heading for the side of the sloping lane leading down from the main road to our garden. I have a vision of a bank of hellebores in the spring sunshine but it has some way to go. I must confess to ordering more doubles last month from the same seller ~ pink and burgundy this time so hopefully I will report back on them this time next year.