The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Helleborus plant, botanically known as Helleborus×nigercors, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Emma’.
The new Helleborus plant is a product of a planned breeding program in Oostkamp, Belgium. The objective of the breeding program was to create new vigorous Helleborus cultivars with early and freely flowering habit.
The new Helleborus plant originated from a cross-pollination conducted by the Inventor in Oostkamp, Belgium in January, 2003 of a proprietary selection of Helleborus×nigercors identified as code number 80-0062, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Helleborus×nigercors identified as code number 80-0061, not patented, as the male, or seed, parent. The new Helleborus plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled greenhouse environment in Oostkamp, Belgium in January, 2005.
Asexual reproduction of the new Helleborus plant by tissue culture in a controlled laboratory environment in Lochristi, Belgium since May, 2005, has shown that the unique features of this new Helleborus plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.