This site suggests propagating hellebores using root division. Just whack a clump in half at root level (well, they describe a gentle way of doing that).
http://gardenofeaden.blogspot....
Apparently you can also raise them from seed: either very fresh seed, or deal with the dormancy:
"sow them when they are as fresh as possible. Once the seeds have been around for a few weeks their germination rate will begin to deteriorate, but leave it for a couple of months and the seed coat hardens requiring you to wait for its natural dormancy period to finish."
But won't many purchased plants be hybrids or clones that won't come true from seed?
The site seems to deliberately ignore that issue:
"Helleborus X sternii .
This hybrid is a cross between Helleborus argutifolius and Helleborus lividus. Once again this variety is best propagated by seed."
Maybe they mean it was "hybridized [u]and then genetically stabilized through inbreeding and selection", becoming an OP variety derived from a hybrid cross, But they didn't say that. It sounds more like "why don;t you go propagate a hybrid from seed and then re-discover F2 variability."
