Every year Helmut gives a number of students the opportunity to work for him at the Stade nursery.

Back in 1993, a group of them were assigned a project to collect seeds from L. ‘Sceptor’ and L. ‘Loubosa’ for propagation. By accident, some of the students also collected some seeds from L. x hessei.  They collected 7 seeds in total out of which one plant emerged in the following year, a remarkable fact when you consider that L. x hessei is normally sterile! The male parent is presumed to be L. stenocephala.

50,000 copies of the plant were produced over time at the nursery, but the Autumn of 2002 saw a serious flood which destroyed all but 5 of the plants. These were sent to a tissue culture lab where stock was successfully built up again.

Helmut shows us Ligularia 'Little Lantern' plants at the nursery.

Ligularia ‘Little Lantern’ was sent to Prof. Dr. Bernd Hertle of the Fachhochschule Weihenstephan. This is where the variety was trialed for many years to ensure it was new.

It received the ISU Award in 1998. ISU stands for “Internationale Stauden-Union” which translates as "International Perennials Association".