Trillium germination

[Lesley Cox]

I'll never forget Pete Salmond's story about digging huge, many years old Trillium chloropetalum plants at Francie Herlund's place, and sinking his hands into what seemed to be fresh dog turds. A little exploration found they were large seed pods full of fresh, moist seed allowed to fall and eventually germinate in situ, a process that had been going on for years so that trilliums were layered on trilliums, on trilliums etc, thousand of plants in a single clump.

[Rodger Whitlock]

...Hilda with reluctance has accepted my use of part of the fridge for a little seed storage ---i'd be pushing it i think, to try for the super heater cupboard as well   .

Being a devotee of marital harmony, let me suggest that if you buy Hilda a new fridge she will display no resistance whatsoever to your conversion of the old one into a seed cooling apparatus.

 Quote "deer came into the yard and ate the three larger stems to stubs"

Mark,(Mc),We have deer here ,(introduced),in forested areas-- .As we are allowed to shoot them on sight they shy away from human activity so are not a problem for gardeners.

Thanks to leash laws and no hunting, deer are becoming a serious urban pest all over town here. I've been in this house for over 21 years and finally this fall the inevitable has occurred, three times now. Came home this afternoon and there were two of the furred destroyers desultorily munching their way down my driveway. They're welcome to the junk growing along the driveway, but when I go out for tomorrow's tour of inspection, I fully expect to find evidence of deer browsing.

Marital harmony I'm all in favor of. Deer in the garden, quite the opposite.

[Lesley Cox]

Being a devotee of marital harmony, let me suggest that if you buy Hilda a new fridge she will display no resistance whatsoever to your conversion of the old one into a seed cooling apparatus.

Absolutely right! Last christmas (2008) when we bought a combo fridge/freezer, the old fridge went into my potting shed and is now just for seed or other stuff I need cooled (the occasional extra bottle.) Roger had this thought of storing his beer there but was soon made to see straight about that. Marital harmony can be carried too far.

[gote]

I suppose I can ride my hobby horse here and say that low pH is not necessarily the same as deficiency in Ca and Mg.
I have a low pH and "limeloving" trilliums (and other plants) do well but grow slowly. I lost my nivale by accident, however.
Anybody keen to swap??
My point is that some soils - especially in the US Piedmont area - are very poor in Calcium carrying minerals so plants sensitive to Calcium deficiency could suffer.
The usual remedy for us (and nature) is to supply carbonate minerals that increase the pH and kill the Rhododendrons and Chinese gentians.
It is quite possible to supply the Ca as sulphate (Gypsum/anhydrite) or phosphate (Bonemeal) in which case the pH does not rise to the same level.
There are also other minerals that contain Ca which are available in the soil in may parts of the world and supply Calcium without significantly increasing the pH.
I believe this is the reason why one can grow "limelovers" in accidic soil provided the nutritient level is high enough and the pH is not excessivly low.
Cheers
Göte