Little Trilliums

[Zdenek]

I grow Trillium hibbersonii, T. nivale and T. rivale in pots for many years. I should like to try them also outdoors. Can anybody tell me his experience with growing these plants in an open garden? Are they frost hardy and do they withstand winter wet weather without cover? I would be grateful for any advice.
Zdenek Rehacek

[Carlo]

Zdenek,

I am making efforts to grow the little trilliums in the garden and have seedlings and plants of several that will go outside. I can't report any particular successes or secrets at the moment, so will follow this thread with interest.

Since you have years of experience growing them in pots, I'd like to find out how you do that.... Can you provide details of your methods?

[Carlo]

They should all be frost hardy, but we don't know where you live. I think the bigger danger is their small size, and the possibility that, without careful siting, they'd get lost in the open ground.

[Ed Alverson]

Looking at these species' native geographic ranges and habitats may provide some clues to their ability to tolerate the conditions in your garden.  Based upon its native habitats, Trillium hibbersonii is should likely to do well in wet winter conditions since it is native to the west coast of Vancouver Island, where the winters are very wet, with mostly rain and not much snow.

Ed

[Maggi Young]

Zdenek lives in the Czech Republic, see his website here: http://www.hradec.org/alpines/

Trillium hibbersonii and T. rivale do live in the garden in Aberdeen, North East Scotland but I think the wet summers don't help much!
I just wish I could get a supply of Trilliun nivale -the most gorgeous little Trillium, in my opinion- to be able to try some outside!  I think Alan Newton, near Newcastle grows them all outside, as well as in pots----if I am wrong he will let me know

[mark smyth]

Margaret Glynn grows hibbersonii outside in a trough. We both grow rivale in the ground and in troughs.

Zdenek we dont get the winter cold that your summer house gets in the winter but the plants will be under the snow

[Lesley Cox]

All the little trilliums grow well here outside except that like Mark, I tend to put hibbersonii in particular in raised beds and troughs in order to protect it from others' overgrowth. They're quite hardy here but I suspect the Czech Republic will have harsher winters than we do.

[Zdenek]

Looking at these species' native geographic ranges and habitats may provide some clues to their ability to tolerate the conditions in your garden.  Based upon its native habitats, Trillium hibbersonii is should likely to do well in wet winter conditions since it is native to the west coast of Vancouver Island, where the winters are very wet, with mostly rain and not much snow.

Ed

Thanks, but probably there are no or mild frosts, aren't there?
Zdenek

[Zdenek]

To Carlo's question:
I have no special methods for growing them. I keep them in square plastic pots in a mixture of loam, leafmould, sand and grit. They are from April to October outdoors sunked in a sand bed in partial shade without any protection. For winter months I put them to my alpine house also sunked to the rim to sand. In winter I almost don't water but they are not dry. Temperatures in my A.H. fall to about -10C or even more but I cover them slightly against frost. I have good crop of seeds every year from T.hibb., lesser from T. rivale and no from T. nivale. Pictures of all three are on my web page.
Once I tried a seedling of T. hibb. in the open garden but it did'nt sprout in the following spring. We have mostly a good cover of snow in winter but sometimes frosts till -15C or even more without snow.
Thanks to all for your replies.
Zdenek Rehacek

http://www.angelfire.com/film/garden/webg/obrT/Trillium_rivale.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/film/garden/webg/obrT/Trillium_nivale.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/film/garden/webg/obrT/Trillium_hibbersonii.jpg

edit: 4th Feb. 2008 by Maggi :  These links do not appear to be working at the moment. Zdenek informed me of this ansd when I check them I am getting an "loadblock" message so I assume this may be a temporary problem at the Angelfire site. Do not despair... click on Zdenek's website and track his photos from that direction, it will likely be more successful...it was for me... or try another time... but DO try! http://www.hradec.org/alpines/

[Ed Alverson]

Thanks, but probably there are no or mild frosts, aren't there?

Zdenek,

I found climate data on the web for two places on the north part of Vancouver Island (Port Hardy and Nootka); this is at about 50 deg N. latitude.   All time low temperatures for this area are in the area of -10 to -15 deg. C.  Lighter frosts (to -3 or -5) are fairly common in winter though.

My sense is that the maritime situation does not produce as great a moderating influence on the west coast of North America as compared to the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland, probably due to the relatively close proximity of the mainland, which is an occasional source of cold continental air in the winter.

Though T. hibbersonii is strictly a coastal plant, the closely related T. ovatum has a wide geographical and elevation distribution (up to at least 1200 meters elevation) in western North America.  If you can grow T. ovatum in the open ground it is worth giving T. hibbersonii a try; if T. ovatum is not successful in your area, T. hibbersonii probably won't survive.

However, I'm sure there are gardeners in British Columbia with personal experience growing T. hibbersonii through cold spells, and their advice would be much more useful to you than my speculation.  Good luck!

Ed

[Diane Whitehead]

T. hibbersonii is so small that I have a circle of white stones
around it.  That is the only reason it has been growing safely
for 35 years.

[Ed Alverson]

Just by coincidence, yesterday I received my SRGC seed exchange package in the mail, which includes a packet of Trillium hibbersonii seeds.  So now I have to decide when to sow the seeds.  I had come to the conclusion that it would be best to store seeds of other species of bulbs, such as Erythronium and Narcissus, in the refrigerator until next fall, to get best germination, since it is now too late in the winter for seeds requiring cold stratification to germinate this spring.  But what about Trillium?  Should I sow them now or wait until next fall?  Any other advice?  All feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

Ed

[Diane Whitehead]

It doesn't require cold to germinate.  Mine have usually started
by September, in a Ziplock of Sunshine Mix, sitting on my kitchen
counter.

[Lesley Cox]

If sown fresh, T. hibbersonii germinates here within 2 months, i.e. early autumn, so certainly no cold stratification is needed. But of course your seed Ed, will likely have been harvested 6 months ago and is presumably dry. I've little experience of it under those conditions except that my original plants were from UK seed and sent to me when about 7 months from their harvest. They germinated well but I don't remember when, as I mislaid the pot (I was moving house/garden/nursery at the time) and didn't find it again for almost 3 years, and only did so because they were in flower and I looked to see what those little pink things were.

[Diane Whitehead]

It might act like Pacific Coast iris, which germinate in
mild temperatures, fall through spring, and never in summer.

However, the area where hibbersonii grows gets,  besides the
phenomenal amount of winter rain (measured in metres, not
centimetres), summer fog, so it doesn't have the summer drought
that the iris experience.

[THICK fog - in August we'd be sailing using radar, as we couldn't
see anything]