Who Is Joseph Lemper?

And how did he create this remarkable whiter than white Hellebore....I can't seem to uncover a thing about how he took this most rarified group of plants and came up with such a singular new one. I bought my first two years ago simply as an indoor Holiday flower around Thanksgiving, but when it started to shrivel along with everything else, I had a small inspiration: Oh it is supposed to be a hellebore after all - let's not toss this into the après-Christmas heap. So, I shoved it into the cold old ground right outside the kitchen door. A barren spot taken over by a stand of old lilacs where I can get nothing much to thrive. This year, at Thanksgiving, these profuse whiter-than-white flowers starting popping up non-stop in stark contrast to the cold dry earth around them. Well... as you might imagine I hied myself right back to Lynch's in Southampton and acquired a few more. They perked up the indoor holiday looks and now they too are in the cold cold ground, right in the same unhospitable spot (why mess with a good thing). Should these also thrive, having been tossed into ice-bound ground, then we will know next year that Mr. Lemper has stumbled upon a miracle.