Helleborus Plant Named ‘Alexia’ Has Light Green Flowers

Summary: A Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ has dark green leaves and a long flowering period of light green flowers.

image of Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ included in patent application filed March 27, 2009, with United States Patent and Trademark Office: Thierry van Paemel, Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Invented by Belgian hellebore breeder Thierry van Paemel, a Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ has leathery, smooth, dark green leaves and light green flowers with a long, late-winter flowering period.

On March 27, 2009, Thierry van Paemel filed a patent application through the United States Patent and Trademark Office for ‘Alexia.’ He listed Beekenkamp Plants B.V. of Maasdijk, South Holland province, Midwestern Netherlands, as assignee. As primary examiner, Annette H. Para reviewed the application. On July 6, 2010, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent, as PP21,149, for the Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia.’

A Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ is the product of a cross-pollination conducted in February 2003 by Thierry van Paemel in a controlled greenhouse environment at his nursery, Kwekerij Het Wilgenbroek BVBA, in Oostkamp, West Flanders province, northwestern Belgium. The unpatented seed parents of ‘Alexia’ originate in the inventor’s proprietary selection of female and male Helleborus x nigercors plants.

In April 2005, Thierry van Paemel discovered and selected the new plant, now known as ‘Alexia,’ from the progeny of his 2003 controlled cross-pollination program. The stability and true reproduction of the new variety’s desirable characteristics over successive generations have been confirmed via asexual reproduction by tissue culture in a laboratory in Lochristi, East Flanders province, northwestern Belgium.

The Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ presents desirable characteristics regarding shape and spread; floral and leaf coloring; flowering habit and period. ‘Alexia’ exhibits outward, upright spreading in a flattened globular, mounded shape. Dark green leaves and light green flowers distinguish ‘Alexia.’ An early, freely flowering habit extends over a long flowering period.

‘Alexia’ hellebores were grown during late winter in 13-centimeter (5.11-inch) containers in an outdoor nursery in Maasdijk, Netherlands. Day temperatures during production ranged from minus 2 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius (28.4 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit). Night temperatures ranged from minus 5 degrees to 15 degrees Celsius (41 degrees to 59 degrees Fahrenheit).

Stems emerge from fleshy, white- to brown-colored, moderately branching roots. Plant height measures about 19.6 centimeters (7.71 inches). Plant diameter, known as area of spread, measures about 40.8 centimeters (16.06 inches).

Palmate compound leaves feature five, serrated leaflets that radiate from a common point. Leaflet shape is elliptical to slightly obovate (Latin: ob-, “opposite” + ovatus, “egg-shaped”).

Leaf length measures about 14.4 centimeters (5.66 inches). Leaf width measures about 16.4 centimeters (6.45 inches). Leaflets have lengths of about 12 centimeters (4.72 inches) and widths of about 4.5 centimeters (1.77 inches).

Uppersides of fully developed leaves are dark green (Royal Horticultural Society colors 139A, 147A), with dark green or light green (RHS 144a, 144B) veins. Undersides of fully developed leaves are brown green (RHS 147B), with green brown (RHS 152A, 152B) venation.

Flowering occurs at stem tops, as terminal panicles. Flowers, which are upright in the loosely branching clusters, face outwardly. Each ‘Alexia’ plant puts forth about 31 flowers. Each flower, which does not persist, has a lifespan of about 10 days.

Panicles measure heights of about 19.6 centimeters (7.71 inches) and diameters of about 11.4 centimeters (4.48 inches). Each flower has a diameter of about 5.5 centimeters (2.16 inches) and a depth of about 2.3 centimeters (0.9 inches).

No petals are detected in the perianth (Ancient Greek: περί, perí, “about, around” + ἄνθος, ánthos, “flower”), the outermost of a flower’s four whorls, or sets of parts. Each ‘Alexia’ flower has about five sepals, the lowermost part of the perianth. Sepal shape is broadly ovate (Latin: ovatus, “egg-shaped”) to orbicular, with a rounded tip. Sepal edges and surfaces are smooth.

Upper surfaces of fully opened flowers are light green (RHS 144B). Lower surfaces are light green (RHS 145C), with light green to brown green (145B, 147D) coloring toward bases and centers.

Thierry van Paemel notes that the Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ is a good garden performer. ‘Alexia’ is tolerant of temperatures ranging from about minus 20 degrees to about 35 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit). The new cultivar tolerates rain and wind.

The Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ complements tenacious survival of elemental forces with attractiveness in color and shape as well as with a desirably lengthy blooming period throughout late winter.

'Alexia' is similar to another variety, 'Emma,' from the same cross-pollination program, but the two hellebores differ primarily in floral coloring; closeup of flowers and foliage of Helleborus plant named 'Emma,' Brighton, East Sussex, South East England: peganum, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

image of Helleborus plant named ‘Alexia’ included in patent application filed March 27, 2009, with United States Patent and Trademark Office: Thierry van Paemel, Public Domain, via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP021126

closeup of flowers and foliage of Helleborus plant named 'Emma,' Brighton, East Sussex, South East England: peganum, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/peganum/8506739924/

For further information:

Burrell, C. Colston; Judith Knott Tyler. Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide. Portland OR: Timber Press, 2006.

De Weerdt, Nathalie. “Kweker Thierry Van Paemel is Creatiefste Ondernemer.” Economisch Nieuws > Archief 2010. Nov. 9, 2010.
Available @ http://www.oostendewerkt.be/economisch-nieuws-1/Archief-2010/archief-2008/amper-n-bezwaarschrift-tegen-heraanleg-zeedijk/archief-2009/kweker-thierry-van-paemel-is-creatiefste-ondernemer

“Helleborus Plant Named 'Alexia.’” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). July 6, 2010.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP021149

"Helleborus Plant Named 'Candy Love.'" United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). Nov. 4, 2008.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP019413

“Helleborus Plant Named ‘Emma.’” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). June 29, 2010.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP021126

"Helleborus Plant Named 'Snow Love.'" United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). Dec. 9, 2008.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP019559

“Helleborus x ericsmithii ‘Pink Beauty.’” Perennials > Plants.
Available @ http://www.perennials.com/plants/helleborus-ericsmithii-pink-beauty.html

International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. “Document TGP/14: Glossary of Technical, Botanical and Statistical Terms Used in UPOV Documents.” UPOV (Union Internationale Pour la Protection des Obtentions Végétales). Dec. 9, 2006.
Available @ http://www.upov.org/edocs/mdocs/upov/en/tc_edc/2007/tgp_14_draft_1_section_2_3_2.pdf

“Lenteroos ‘Alexia.’” Mijn Tuin > Planten.
Available @ https://www.mijntuin.org/plants/5238-lenteroos-alexia

“The Parts of a Flower.” The Robinson Library > Science > Botany > Plant Anatomy.
Available @ http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/science/botany/anatomy/flowerparts.htm

Rice, Graham; Elizabeth Strangman. The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hellebores. Newton Abbot, England: David and Charles, 2005.