Part of the HilverdaFlorist assortment is cut flower Helleborus variety Magnificent Bells. This Hellebore can be grown year round as a cut flower, offering well filled stems of green/white blooms. This variety performs well as both exclusive filler in bouquets and mono flower bouquets.

Benefits of growing Helleborus Magnificent Bells

As its name suggests, Magnificent Bells is a remarkable flower. The branches offer lots of flowers, length and a great vase life of up to three weeks. The flowers hanging down, with beautiful stamens, create a magical yet natural effect. Its possible to grow this Helleborus year round in cool conditions. In warmer climates, you can grow and harvest from autumn to spring (depending on the region). Magnificent Bells has a perennial life cycle and can be grown up to 4 – 5 years.

Key factors in growing

What are the most important things to know before growing Magnificent Bells? We list them for you.

• Greenhouse. A cool greenhouse or plastic tunnels are very suitable for growing Magnificent Bells. Even outdoor cultivation is optional in cooler climates, but keep in mind that the plants have to be kept frost-free and can be protected from harsh sunlight.
• Heating. Not needed. In general: Hellebore is a energy friendly plant not requiring heating.
• First harvest. 4 to 6 months after planting is the average time for the first harvest.
• Life cycle. Perennial up to 4 – 5 years. Year round flowering in mild climates, flowering from mid autumn to mid spring in warmer climates.
• Plant timing. In milder and moderate climates, planting can be done all year round. For regions with more extreme summers and winters, we recommend to plant your Magnificent Bells in spring, for harvesting 5 – 6 months later.
• Plant density. Approx. 6 – 8 plants per square meter. Can be grown in both pots or in beds.
• Netting. Netting is not necessary. It’s optional to place wires above the rows to support longer stems.
• Pincing. Not needed.
• PGR’s. This is optional to reach more stem length.
• Media, soil analysis & climate. Download our growing manual to see all details.
• Harvest. Harvest with a minimum of 3 open flowers per stem. Cut deep to enable new shoots to make length and good quality. Never cut away leaves after harvesting.

Keep in mind that these are general guidelines, for personal advice always contact our team.

After harvesting Magnificent Bells

For optimum shelf life, we recommend storing Magnificent Bells in a cool, disinfected container out of the sun after harvesting. Add chlorine to the water in the container. Store and ship the flowers at 5 – 15°C.

Magnificent Bells in floral works

With your Helleborus Magnificent Bells, you can hit the market with a unique and versatile flower. Especially in winter, this flower is loved for floral arrangements. From magical bridal work to beautiful mono flower bouquets, Magnificent Bells is an all-rounder.

Is Helleborus Magnificent Bells the product you are looking for? Our team is happy to advise you. Please contact your Area Sales Manager to learn more.

Times have past that starting a cultivation journey with stage 3 tissue culture plants should be considered complicated, difficult and only for specialized self-rooting nurseries. As the benefits of tissue culture plants are obvious, input and shipping costs keep increasing and growers keep developing themselves, starting plants from stage 3 TC is gaining popularity and becoming more common.

For growers with little or no experience with stage 3 planting, Garvinea® is the product you want to start off with. HilverdaFlorist supplies stage 3 plants that are ready to enter stage 4 for acclimating, hardening and creating liners. You won’t get a fragile, little clump of cells. Garvinea® stage 3 plants are healthy, uniform, vigorous and resilient, with substantial roots and leaves. This makes transplanting them into liners easy, quick and truly doable for growers who are already familiar with starting crops from URC or seed.

This article was originally created for Greenhouse Grower.

Here are the steps and key factors to successfully create Garvinea® liners with stage 3 TC plants within just 6 to 9 weeks.

Preparations

With its natural weather, pest and disease resistance, Garvinea® is the only true Garden Gerbera on the market. No other Gerbera can match the vigor and flowering power displayed by the series from early spring until the first frost. You can finish them at relatively low temperatures, without PGR’s and little to no intervention of pesticides. Garvinea® is quick to bloom with flowers up to 4 inch in a broad color spectrum and easy to grow and sell alongside the Echinacea MOOODZ® and Salvia Salgoon® Series.

As durable as they are, please keep in mind that during stage 4 the Garvinea® plants still need to get used to a totally new environment. From the sterile, warm, humid, and low light environment of laboratory vessels, they will need to be hardened off to greenhouse conditions. The initial location needs to provide the opportunity to balance and adjust humidity, temperature and light. Use tunnels of white film (summer) and transparent film (winter) to reflect radiation and create a warm and humid place for rapid root growth.

For growing Garvinea® liners we recommend choosing any tray size within a range of 24 to 112 cell trays. Use a sterile, well-draining, peat/perlite mixed soil with an EC of 1.0 – 1.2 and a pH of 5.5 – 5.8. Make sure to pre-water the trays and plan for unboxing and transplanting within 48 hours upon arrival of the stage 3 plants.

Transplanting in soil

When you receive the stage 3 Garvinea® TC plants, the plants are already taken out of the laboratory vessels and the agar is already rinsed off. The plants are carefully packed in paper towels and boxed with 100 plants per box. To transfer the plants into the trays, take them out of the box and place them into the soil, using a sterile tweezer or forceps. This should be carried out gently and precisely. Stick the rooted part of the plant in the center of the cell, just deep enough to anchor them well into the soil. Make sure not to stick them in too deep.

Humidity and water management is key

When the trays are completed, water or mist them carefully so that they are evenly moist. Then, put them in a closed tunnel, providing a RH of 99%. After 4 days small holes should provide a bit more ventilation. From this point onwards start increasing ventilation by opening one side of the tunnel for a growing amount of time each day (from 0.5 up to 4 hours a day) and by gradually increasing the size of the holes. In order to maintain plant turgidity the tunnel should be resealed before signs of wilting are visible. Generally plants wont need to be watered during their time in the tunnel, only when dry spots are visible should additional water be applied to keep the soil damp, but not wet.

After 10 days of slowly increasing ventilation, the root size should have increased enough to support the young plant, and then the entire tunnel can be removed. Check the plants regularly. In case of wilting, leave the plants in the tunnel a little longer, without adding water. Once the tunnel is removed, maintain a greenhouse RH of 80%. Water the plants only once a day by ebb and flow or overhead watering. For healthy root development, avoid overwatering and water the plants only in the morning, so they have time to dry before nightfall.

Temperature and light
After transplanting the stage 3 Garvinea® TC plants, start providing a day and night temperature of 75ºF. From 4 weeks onwards the temperature can be gradually reduced to as low as 66ºF in week 6/7, by balancing screening and ventilation in the greenhouse. Ideal light levels in the greenhouse are around 3,200 fc. Start screening or apply chalk when sun radiation outside reaches levels over 450-500W/y2.

Feeding
Use a slow-release fertilizer incorporated into the soil. Soluble fertilizers also work well. Aimfor a water EC of 1.5. Maintain a pH of 5.5 – 5.8.

Specification of irrigation water:

Ready for finishing
After 6 to 7 weeks your liners are ready. Roots, stems, and leaves should have developed significantly and the plants are fully adapted and hardened to be transplanted into 6 to 8 inch pots for finishing within 8 to 14 week. Check out our previous articles on finishing Garvinea Garden Gerberas, or reach out to us for more information on stage 4 or finishing. We have Garvinea® Culture Guidelines available and can provide you with tailored advice.

Mazanne Pennings (based in the USA) and Stef Berkhout (based in the Netherlands) are both USA Sales & Product Representatives for HilverdaFlorist.

Overview 

Acclimating and hardening during stage 4 is done by gradually, going from high humidity, high temperatures, and low light intensity, to lower humidity, lower temperatures, and higher light intensities.

There have been many advances in breeding technology over the past years, including the development of new techniques for improving the genetics and characteristics of new varieties. The HilverdaFlorist team is always focused on innovation and optimization which makes it possible to breed more efficiently, sustainable and with greater precision, allowing for the development of crops that can help to meet the needs of the market.

Developing new varieties

HilverdaFlorist has a wide range of Pot-, Patio- and Garden varieties in Alstroemeria, Dianthus, Echinacea, Gerbera, Helleborus and Salvia. The assortment consists of crops that have been bred for decades to relatively new products. Products that are recently presented to the market require different attention compared to the crops that have been around for a longer time.

Gerbera and Dianthus are crops that have been part of the product range for decades. The breeders of HilverdaFlorist have been working on these varieties for years. As a result of the high level of performance of these crops improvements might sometimes be relatively small, but certainly not less important. With crops like these HilverdaFlorist focuses on improvement by consolidation.

With relatively new series such as Echinacea MOOODZ® and Salvia Salgoon®, the focus is more on fundamental aspects and establishing these crops in the market. This creates opportunities for potential growth. To respond to this, HilverdaFlorist sets these markets as key areas of focus at this time. The introduction of new, improved crops is very important for HilverdaFlorist. The team of breeders is constantly looking for new opportunities to diversify and differentiate.

Main goals and challenges

One of the most important themes at the moment is sustainability. This includes improving genetic resistance of plants. Genetic resistance is a sustainable solution to deal with the increasing pressure of diseases and pests. HilverdaFlorist strives to develop robust plants that can withstand various circumstances and survive even longer with fewer resources. It is important to work more from a sustainability and resilience perspective.

When working towards more sustainable products, there are of course challenges. Working on genetic resistance takes a lot of time and bioassays often are difficult, since they can give a lot of variation. But, nonetheless it is something we focus on and strive to optimize.

Optimalisation for outdoor growth

HilverdaFlorist focuses on optimizing outdoor growth for the series Gerbera Garvinea®, Echinacea MOOODZ® and Salvia Salgoon®. This contributes to the resistance to diseases, pests, and stress factors. HilverdaFlorist is working on genetic compactness which can have important implications for plant growth and development, as well as for the plant’s ability to adapt to different environmental conditions. This is done without the use of PGR treatments. To achieve this, more outdoor trials are being set up. By doing this, robustness and resilience in the crops can be better selected. This way, HilverdaFlorist strives to test the value of the plant, as it is grown by the consumer, in order to deliver the ultimate and reliable product for the consumer.

Molecular marker breeding technology

HilverdaFlorist values the traditional art of breeding, but is always up to date when it comes to innovative techniques. Currently, there are developments with marker-assisted breeding. This is a technique that uses molecular markers to identify and select plants with desirable characteristics. These markers are then used to breed plants with the desired characteristics by selecting individuals with the relevant. This method makes it possible to work more precise and to produce plants with improved characteristics such as disease resistance more efficiently and effectively.

Want to know more about what’s happening at HilverdaFlorist? Keep an eye on our knowledge base for all the latest news!