Spring Has Sprung - V - Trilliums

We were always told as kids that it was illegal to take a trillium out of its natural setting in Ontario. According to the Wikipedia entry this is not the case though it is the law in a few States of the Union and Provinces of the Confederation. Though it may not be against the law, picking or transplanting a trillium can cause permanent damage or arrest growth. It takes a plant fifteen years to reach the flowering stage and if a flower is picked chances are the plant won't bloom for another seven years. The seeds are disseminated in a strange way - in ant excrement (see the link above for an explanation, I found it fascinating.)

I do not know how the three in the corner of our garden got there but they have bloomed the four springs we've lived in the house so I can only assume they've been here for at least eleven years. This is the first year they have been so predominant and I only wish there were more of them. Maybe if those ants get busy the new owners will end up with a glorious ungrowth of white in the spring.

Shortly the entire back of the yard will be covered with a jungle of ostrich plume ferns - at last count there were 51 of them - and the trillims will be hidden as the flowers fade. That back bed is wonderful come early July - shades of green and white with the odd flash of yellow, blue or purple: periwinkle, hostas, day lilies, ostrich ferns and even the accursed Bishop's Scourge.