fyi on propagating Hellebores - About 45 years ago, my late dh and I began a winter garden behind the house with five 2" pots of seedling hybrid Hellebores. They matured over the years, and just before the seed pods dropped their seeds in May-July, we would clean and mulch the area so the freshly ripened seeds would germinate where they fell. Up until about 2014, this garden grew thick and flowered profusely from about March into May - after a while weeds never volunteered there. Holly and boxwood augmented its winter shapes, and a Viburnum × bodnantense 'Dawn' bloomed nearby beginning in February.
We had about 35 years of peace before our garden came to the attention of whoever's been causing various kinds of garden/property damage around here. In all the years we kept a 'Free to Good Home' sign on the street with extra plants from the garden, no one ever trespassed so destructively into the garden as since 2014 here. All they had to do was ask.
Anyhoo - sometimes it's easier to buy a plant and let it self-sow than to begin with a pack of seeds. Sometimes a freshly ripened seed hasn't yet developed germination-inhibiting enzymes that it will later, during subsequent storage.
But since not all seeds germinate the same way, a very useful book on the subject is:
Norman C. Deno's book entitled, "Seed Germination, Theory and Practice" 2nd ed.
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https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/dow...
Wishing you success in all your gardening efforts,
karen
