Helleborus Plant Named ‘Emma’ Has White to Greenish Purple Flowers

Summary: A Helleborus plant named ‘Emma’ has dark green leaves and a long flowering period of white flowers that become greenish purple.

closeup of flowers and foliage of Helleborus plant named 'Emma,' Brighton, East Sussex, South East England: peganum, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

A Helleborus plant named ‘Emma,’ invented by Belgian hellebore breeder Thierry van Paemel, has smooth, dark green leaves and a long, late-winter flowering period with white flowers that become greenish purple.

On March 27, 2009, a patent application for ‘Emma’ was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Beekenkamp Plants B.V., in Maasdijk, Netherlands, was listed as assignee. The patent was granted June 29, 2010, as PP21,126, after affirmative review by Annette H. Para as primary examiner.

Plant breeder Thierry van Paemel manages Kwekerij Het Wilgenbroek BVBA, a nursery specializing in hellebores, in Oostkamp, a municipality in the northwestern Belgian province of West Flanders. A Helleborus plant named ‘Emma’ emerges from the inventor’s program of planned breeding with the goal of creating new, early and freely flowering Helleborus cultivars.

In January 2003 Thierry van Paemel conducted a controlled cross-pollination of a proprietary selection of Helleborus x nigercors in the nursery’s greenhouse. The seed parents’ hybrid, Helleborus x nigercors, represents a cross between Helleborus niger, known commonly as black hellebore or Christmas rose, and Helleborus argutifolius, known commonly as Corsican hellebore, Corsican rose or holly-leaved hellebore.

In January 2005 the inventor discovered and selected, from the progeny of the 2003 cross-pollination program, a single flowering plant with desirable characteristics. Asexual reproduction by tissue culture, conducted since May 2005 in a laboratory in Lochristi, East Flanders province, northwestern Belgium, confirm the stability and true reproduction of desirable traits over successive generations.

The distinguishing characteristics of the Helleborus plant named ‘Emma’ emphasize growth and spread; dark green leaf color; early, free flowering over a lengthy blooming period; floral colors. The new cultivar exhibits outward and upright mounded spread. The natural flowering season for ‘Emma’ spans late winter in the Netherlands.

The description for the patent application is based upon plants grown in an outdoor nursery in Maasdijk, Netherlands throughout late winter. Plants were potted in 2-liter (2.11-quart) containers. Day temperatures spanned minus 2 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius (28.4 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit). The night temperature range was from minus 5 degrees to 15 degrees Celsius (41 degrees to 59 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Helleborus plant named ‘Emma’ has white to brown fleshy roots. The sparse roots are moderately branched.

‘Emma’ measures a height of about 17.4 centimeters (6.85 inches). Plant diameter, known as area of spread, reaches about 41.6 centimeters (16.37 inches).

The new Helleborus cultivar’s dark green foliage presents a palmate compound leaf type. Leaves comprise five, serrated leaflets attached to a common point. Leaflets are shaped elliptically to ovately (Latin: ovatus, “egg-shaped”). Leaflet shape may also appear obovate (Latin: ob-, “opposite” + ovatus, “egg-shaped”), with the narrower end at the base.

The entire leaf measures a length of about 15.8 centimeters (6.22 inches) and a width of about 17.2 centimeters (6.77 inches). Each individual leaflet has a length of about 11.3 centimeters (4.44 inches) and a width of about 4 centimeters (1.57 inches).

Mature leaflets have upper surface blade colors of dark green to green gray (Royal Horticultural Society colors 139A, N189A), with brown green (RHS 148D) veins. Leaflet blade underside color is from dark green to brown green (RHS 147A, 189A). Underside venation is brown (RHS 177A, 177B).

Flowers are borne at stem tops as terminal panicles, or clusters. Flowers in the loosely branching clusters measure diameters of about 5.8 centimeters (2.28 inches) and depths of about 2.2 centimeters (0.86 inches). Each plant puts forth about 75 outward-facing, upright flowers. Each flower, which is not persistent, lasts about 10 days.

Floral arrangement consists of about five sepals in a single whorl. Each sepal is ovate to broadly ovate in shape, with a rounded apex, or tip. Smoothness characterizes sepal edges and upper and lower surface textures.

Fully opened flowers have yellow green to white (RHS 150D, 155A) uppersides that are tinged with green brown (RHS 153D) toward the center. With development, coloring becomes brown purple (RHS 178A) with dark green (RHS 147A) tinges. The undersides of fully opened flowers are close to light green (RHS 145C), with light green to brown green (RHS 145B, 147D) coloring toward bases and centers.

The Helleborus plant named ‘Emma’ is found to perform well in gardens. In addition to showy desirable traits of color, lengthy blooming period, growth and shape, ‘Emma’ is not discouraged by rain or wind. Also, ‘Emma’ tolerates a wide temperature range of about minus 20 degrees to about 35 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit).

image of Helleborus plant named 'Emma' 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

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

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/

image of Helleborus plant named 'Emma' 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

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 ericsmithii ‘HGC Silvermoon’ PP15639.” Perennial Resource > Perennial Encyclopedia.
Available @ http://www.perennialresource.com/encyclopedia/view/?plant=1984

"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 ‘HGC Silvermoon.’” United States Patent and Trademark Office > Program in Word (PIW). March 8, 2005.
Available @ http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=PP015639

"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

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

Marriner, Derdriu. "Helleborus Plant Named 'Alexia' Has Light Green Flowers." Earth and Space News. Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/10/helleborus-plant-named-alexia-has-light.html

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