Trillium

[Rob]

Two trillium grandiflorum that I bought at the garden centre yesterday

Rob

[Anthony Darby]

I wonder if these flowers were pink when they first opened?

[Rob]

I don't know if they were pink when the flowers opened. You can tell from the photos that they are starting to go over.

I bought them from Cotswold Garden Flowers. These were the only two with pink, the rest were all white.

[John Forrest]

Diane, I've had variation with T. rivale also. Sometimes with 2 petals quite different from the other.

[Diane Whitehead]

Lesley asked if the Purple Heart rivale had sported.

It looks to me as though the plant can only manage to make a set amount of pigment
and there isn't always enough for each flower, or each petal in the case of John's plant.

I read somewhere that there is a cost to a plant for producing nectar, colour, scent etc.
so they can't do it all, and that is why white flowers are more likely to be scented than
strongly pigmented ones.

 Or was it that the chemical precursors of scent and pigment are often the same
and the plant gets to choose one or the other?  No pigment, lots of scent, some pigment,
some scent, or lots of pigment, no scent.

[mark smyth]

John those dark Trilliums are great

[Lesley Cox]

But are colour and/or scent not built in genetically to each species, according to what their pollinators are? Some insects see colour, some smell scent, presumably. If a plant is naturally coloured, surely there would be enough colour for all its flowers?

[rob krejzl]

A chimera perhaps?

[Anthony Darby]

I think the colour/scent question would refer to species and genera, not to individual flowers on one plant. Plants with white, scented flowers will be pollinated by night-flying insects like moths. I don't think colour production is very 'expensive'. Scent and nectar production, however, will be, as nectar is high octane fuel and scent must be a volatile, possibley energy-rich substance too? Notice that honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) only produce their scent in the early evening when the hawk moths (Sphingidae) etc. come out.

[Anthony Darby]

Here are pics of Trillium grandiflorum 'Flore Pleno'. The first came from Blooms; the second didn't. They don't look any different from Paul Christian's 'Snowbunting', which I also have.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Sorry, still trying to catch up on some older threads.

Anthony, those pics of the flore plena are absolutely fantastic.  So VERY very nice!!  I've just traded for a piece of this this year here in Aus, so I am awaiting the future when it flower (I expect not until next year unfortunately, but hoping for that nice I can live with it just marginally!!).

Thanks for the pics.  They're just wonderful.

[Diane Whitehead]

No seeds from my crosses of ovatum x rivale.  No seeds from my crosses
of ovatum x scented ovatum, either.  Not a great year.

I'll try again next year.

Phyllis Gustafson wrote me that the original owners of Siskiyou Rare Plants
had success with ovatum x rivale and the reverse cross as well.

[mark smyth]

not one seed from my ovatum x rivale either

[Paul T]

Nearly Trillium flowering time here in my part of Aus.  There are buds in evidence, although no colour as yet.  Judging by most of the recent posting it means Fermi should have them opening any day now!!   

So nice to have Trilliums in evidence again.