Where do baby hellebores come from?

Click on this photo to see the tiny black seeds inside the leaves

For years I'd heard how hellebores drop their seeds when the flowers wither at the end of season and that, underneath, at the beginning of the next season, one would find baby hellebores. I looked every year and found nothing.

Meanwhile, every year I also weeded this mysterious small plant that was in my garden. There would be dozens of it in random spots.

It wasn't until I went to a garden club sale recently that I finally realized that what I thought was a weed was actually baby hellebores. I don't know how many I have murdered over the years. Apparently its seeds fly off everywhere and don't stay just under the plants. Sometimes they grow randomly and sometimes in clusters.

Happily I now have groupings of baby hellebores that will now live and, hopefully, thrive.

Info on hellebores: http://gardening.about.com/od/plantprofile1/p/Hellebore_Pro.htm