Little Trilliums

[Maggi Young]

Is she now? That's interesting.......

[Lesley Cox]

I have just a minute ago picked the first of 3 large seed heads from T. ovatum, a plant I bought in bloom a couple of months ago. (I remember the day clearly because it was the day I got a speeding ticket on the way south, and damned if I didn't get another at the same place on the way north, home again (camera, not traffic police so no demerit points but it's cost me $240, an expensive Trillium).

Anyway, I'm now going to try Kristl's way with germiniating Trilliums. I have no Vermiculite or Perlite but will try washed pumice instead and then put the bag in a warm but dark place and we shall see what we shall see.

[Maggi Young]

I'm a bit surprised that the lovely Lola CAN speed, Lesley.......

Your trillium is about the same price as the daft ebay prices for the snowies!

[Diane Whitehead]

I'm now going to try Kristl's way with germiniating Trilliums.

Lesley,

Kristl was germinating Eastern trilliums which behave very differently from
our Western ones.  Western plants generally begin to grow when the rains
begin in the fall.

I just checked my ovatums, sown as soon as the seed was ripe in July. There
are lots of green leaves showing.

[Lesley Cox]

So did you sow your ovatums just as for anything else Diane, in a pot and kept cool and damp? The fact is, I'm not very good with Trillium seed, not seeming able to keep them moist enough on a long term basis which is why I thought I'd try this way, in a damp bag. Any advice would be welcome. I can always remove them from their bag and resow.

Maggi, Lola and I take some exception to the suggestion that she can't speed. She can do a nice and steady 120 kms which is 20 over the open road limit. No autobahns here thankyou! However, on these two occasions, I was apparently doing 66 and 67 kms in a 50km zone, through a small township called Clinton, a totally forgettable place except that a lot of people seem to get caught there and have to pay up.

[Diane Whitehead]

Lesley, if I am sowing Eastern trillium seeds, or any from a seed exchange,
I do as I do with most large-enough-to-count seeds:  I sow them with a
couple of spoonsful of damp purchased seedmix in a plastic ziplock bag.
This is the only way for me to keep seeds damp and safe for an unknown period
- last year I had germination from a bag of colchicum seeds sown 8 years
previously.

However, Western trillium seeds from the wild or from my garden -
 ovatum, albidum, rivale - get sown in a covered container to keep them
moist and safe. I have a big collection of clear plastic containers from tiny
to huge (I'm the one leaving the banquet with the plastic-covered sandwich
trays). I'm not sure what was originally in this one - friends and family also
collect for me - and of course it normally is closed.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Diane, I'll try that though a lot of the similar containers, for fruit - raspberries etc - have air holes in them. I'll have to eat more Indian takeaways. I guess they'll need to be permanently opened once the germination gets going?

[Diane Whitehead]

No, I keep the lids on for any slow-growing woodlanders, like rhododendrons,
ferns, shortias.  I don't have the sun shining on them, though.

[galanthophile]

I've tried nivale and rivale outside in a raised bed and lost them both. A couple of years ago a plant of cernuum (the flowers) was eaten overnight by what I suspect was a snail so it's not difficult to see where my little treasures went...

[cohan]

While I'm at it, I should mention that intensive division is something I have practiced for years. My sense of the situation is that many gardeners are not aware of this easy method of propagation; they bring home a new plant in its pot, plant it out, and that's the end of it. I have found in many cases that on inspection, a new plant will prove to have multiple growing points and most of these will establish if divided off and planted out without delay.

This is true even of some plants notorious for disliking root disturbance. Hacquetia epipactis is such a plant; by sheer chance I discovered that it pushes out new roots in mid summer (say late June or early July) and if ruthlessly divided at that time, every growing point will establish.

Friends who go on nursery crawls with me are either horrified or amused to see me carefully looking over a flat of plants for the one with the most growing points. I have the last laugh; an expensive plant with 10 growing points is a ten-times better bargain than a specimen with only one growing point.

Those with strong urges to tidiness may prefer to use a sharp knife to perform the surgery, but I prefer the Brazilian miracle healer technique of using my fingers. A dab of sulphur on the freshly wounded surfaces will help prevent fungal rots from getting entrance if that appears to be a risk.

i'm rather late to this thread, so rodger may or may not still be looking? in any case, i'm interested in your divisions--i presume you take some divisions for various purposes, including giving them away, but is the main objective to establish them a few inches or so away to spread the clump more quickly? or do you mainly use them in completely different spots in the garden?

[cohan]

for lesley, re: sowing--
you may already be familiar with another variation of the 'baggy method': you pot up your seeds in any way you usually would, then enclose it, pot and all in a clear plastic bag--ziplock food bags are popular for convenience, and stiffness--they tend to remain upright;
the only obvious caveat, as for any covered seed, of course, is no direct sun, as they plants will bake, though usually they are fine under lights (i'd still monitor temps for anything that wants to stay cool..)

[gote]

Re division of Haquetia. Roger,
It has for some time been my hobby horse that some woodlanders are best divided moved in midsummer before the flowers fade. This seems to be true for most Trilliums, The martagon group of Lilium, Corydalis solida and many Galanthus seem to move best just at the time of dying down. You are now adding Haquetia to the group. I have had good results dividing Ranzania as soon as the berries are ripe. It would be very interesting to know how many other people have this experience and with which plants.

Re sowing in closed containers. I have used the bag-trick with some success. I have not dared to use enclosures of heavier substance because I have been afraid that the atmosphere might be to closed. This may be pure superstition on my side. Views anyone?

I often sow things like Trillium in a lattice pot sunk in the ground in a spot where I know the mother plant grows well. The pot is really only so that I can sow on the bench, keep track of where the seedlings are supposed to be and get them up again in an easy operation.

Göte       

[Rodger Whitlock]

i'm rather late to this thread, so rodger may or may not still be looking? in any case, i'm interested in your divisions--i presume you take some divisions for various purposes, including giving them away, but is the main objective to establish them a few inches or so away to spread the clump more quickly? or do you mainly use them in completely different spots in the garden?

Mainly to speed up natural increase. I have several forms of Eranthis that don't necessarily come true from seed, or are sterile, so every two or three years I go after these and divide them, then replant them immediately to form a larger, more luxurious patch.

Another plant that has responded well to division is Leucojum vernum. For some mysterious reason, though I have planted well over a hundred bulbs of this at various times in various parts of my garden, only in one small area have they succeeded. Everywhere else, they dwindled away to nothing within a few years. Thinking of snowdrops, which divide so well in the green, I subjected my few Leucojum vernum to the same treatment a couple of years ago, and am pleased to say that most of the divisions have established.

Cyclamen too get divided, but not on purpose. I'm sure we've all put a spade through a cyclamen tuber at one time or another. I simply rebury the pieces on the spot and forget about them. Some of the very oddly shaped cyclamen tubers I've unearthed in later years seem to be the result.

Terrible confession: when I bought my present house & garden, I decided that the operating philosophy of my garden was to cause visitors to gasp not only "where on earth did you get that?" but also "and where did you get so much of it?"

Once in a while I succeed.

[cohan]

Terrible confession: when I bought my present house & garden, I decided that the operating philosophy of my garden was to cause visitors to gasp not only "where on earth did you get that?" but also "and where did you get so much of it?"
Once in a while I succeed.

a worthy ambition! being more or less at the beginning stages here,  i am trying hard to remind myself that it will be more useful for the garden to buy several of one plant than one each of several...hard to break the habits of the indoor plant collector..