Yeah, the first one is about tissue culture:
http://tigerprints.clemson.edu...
"Hellebores (Helleborus spp.) are winter-‐flowering ornamental plants that are difficult to propagate in tissue culture."
"Helleborus plants reproduce both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes in nature. Hellebores are most commonly propagated by seed, due to prolific seed production and slow division rates in nature and commercial production. Interspecific hybrids such as the plants included in this study, however, often produce little or no seed. Additionally, the hybrid nature of these plants will result in seed that does not breed true (Burrell and Tyler 2006; Beruto et al. 2013). Due to the slow nature of in vivo propagation methods, the best-‐quality hellebore plants, including rare interspecific hybrids, are often prohibitively expensive. Because commercialization of these cultivars is dependent on their propagation, high division rates may be possible using a suitable tissue culture method."
So is the book, and the third link seems to be the same. Ouch!
Good luck! They say that TC is also difficult - and those would be TC scientists saying it is hard!
