Thursday, May 10, 2007

Spring Has Sprung - V - Trilliums

A single trilliumWe 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 Two trilliumstransplanting 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 Trilliumsthey 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.

Ferns in the South West corner

1 comment:

BigAssBelle said...

what's that frosty white tinted short little plant ~ ground cover? do you know the name? is it just a not-yet-grown perennial?

love those ostrich ferns. i need more ferns in my life. and the trillium ~ to die for. i don't think we're supposed to dig them in the wild here either. folks do, of course, as they murder bears for their gallbladders and do other dreadful things to disrupt the natural order.

i think i shall buy some of the cultivated trillium for my garden next year. love those.