Trillium Weekend in New Zealand

[t00lie]

The end.

Apologies for the Trillium overload......  

Cheers Dave.

[fleurbleue]

Never enough  Thanks for all these pics !

[monocotman]

just stunning photos and plants, especially those yellow trilliums.
Many thanks.
Can anyone tell us more about the development of these cultivars?

Regards,

David

[Lesley Cox]

 On the first day I took one shot then had a "batteries need replacing" message on the screen. Of course the spares were locked up in my camera case in Tim's car )

Guess that's what happens when one pays far too much attention to a set of knobbly knees Lesley.

I assure you Dave, Tim's knees are perfect!

Working from the other end of the weekend, we visited several quite small (or tiny) gardens in the Timaru area and always saw lovely things. Here are some of them

The NZ kowhai tree, Sophora tetraptera

One of many Heuchera varieties. I thought how easy it would be to do a photo essay is outstanding foliage forms.

Acacia pravissima

Acacia longifolia?

A very fine red Trillium chloropetalum.

Flowering cherry against a spring sky.

[Lesley Cox]

Magnolia stellata

One of hundreds of white Tr. chloropetalum

Clematis (probably) 'Sweet Hart' a local hybrid or selection

and in close-up. Not mis-spelt. I believe this form is named for South Canterbury gardener Jenny Hart.

Geranium, a hybrid with G, sessiliflorum in its brown form and probably involving G. traversii as well. It has good pink flowers.

Superb foliage on a tree paeony.

[Rob Potterton]

Hello Dave, please could you provide more information about those stunning yellow Trillium, thank you.

[Lesley Cox]

Gwen Stewart had a small town garden yet was perhaps the most interesting of all, for me. It was well designed and planted to the hilt yet not over crowded and Gwen had made wonderful use of tiny spaces. Every tree trunk had a climbing rose up it and every climbing rose had a clematis reaching up, 3 for the space of 1. The wonderful Lysochiton americanum Doug showed on the last page was in Gwen's garden, a low growing plant by a tiny pool, well in proportion. The Japanese species was there too, smaller and with fewer flowers but beautifully healthy. I liked many of Gwen's colour combos which made the small area seem larger. Several different yellows in a group or whites and silver foliage, reds and browns together and so on. Here are a few such combos.

Different yellows and oranges

A fluffy white tulip was grouped with lamb's ear and white Narcissus

And an Epimedium near the little pool

[Lesley Cox]

Certainly Dave and others can tell you more than I can Rob but Val Mulvihill who still does them best, has had only limited success with their breeding. I don't know where the original came from (T. chloropetalum 'Val Mulvihill') unless as a mutation from her own seedlings but she said at the weekend that all the seedlings are coming in creams rather than yellows and she is now going for back crossing of those with the yellows. It's early days with that apparently. When we all saw the original plant 10 years ago at the first Trillium Weekend, there were just about bodies lying about the garden, stunned and in amazement at the rich colouring of it. Judging from Dave's "gardens on the way home" I think Maggi's friend of the possum sox has them done to a turn too.

Trying to find my picture of the original named plant but it seems to have vanished off my radar.

[WimB]

Thanks for the pictures, Dave and Lesley.

Love the plants, but especially the yellow and red/yellow flowering Trilliums (I don't seem to be the only one, either  )

[t00lie]

Hello Dave, please could you provide more information about those stunning yellow Trillium, thank you.

just stunning photos and plants, especially those yellow trilliums.
Many thanks.
Can anyone tell us more about the development of these cultivars?

Hello Rob and David

Sorry I can't add much more to what Lesley has mentioned other than that they are not common here.
My two attempts at growing on gifted yellow divisions a few years back ended in failure with the rhizomes rotting so I'm happy to 'luck it' as i have a good number of strong 3 year seedlings coming along so it will be interesting to see what eventuates.

In the meantime i sow as much mixed NZ T. chloro seed as i can lay my hands on, in the hope........

The NZ Trillium Group has a yearly seed list --Contact details for membership  pejoleonard@hotmail.com .Seed of T.chloro yellows have been listed at times.

Cheers Dave.

[WimB]

And an Epimedium near the little pool

Nice Epimedium, Lesley.

It's E. perralderianum or E. pinnatum (subsp. pinnatum or subsp. colchicum), I always get confused between those two (three).

[Susan]

The yellow chloropetalums do not seem to be stable.  Val's next generation did not have that lovely yellow.  When she has divided the original, the parent plant has struggled and sometimes died.I believe they are more susceptible to infection.     Someone may know more about it, but I think yellow is a recessive gene in trilliums.  I have had plants that came up a really nice lemon but gradually have reverted to a creamy white, and like Dave, have sown lots of T chloropetalum in the hope.......

Susan

[Rob Potterton]

Certainly Dave and others can tell you more than I can Rob but Val Mulvihill who still does them best, has had only limited success with their breeding. I don't know where the original came from (T. chloropetalum 'Val Mulvihill') unless as a mutation from her own seedlings but she said at the weekend that all the seedlings are coming in creams rather than yellows and she is now going for back crossing of those with the yellows. It's early days with that apparently. When we all saw the original plant 10 years ago at the first Trillium Weekend, there were just about bodies lying about the garden, stunned and in amazement at the rich colouring of it. Judging from Dave's "gardens on the way home" I think Maggi's friend of the possum sox has them done to a turn too.

Trying to find my picture of the original named plant but it seems to have vanished off my radar.

Thank you Lesley, Susan and Dave for all informations. It certainly would be very interesting to see the original T. chloropetalum 'Val Mulvihill' if that was the first yellow seedling and like Wim i think the yellow with red base is utterly stunning. Pity if this mutation/form has so far proved unstable. It would though be interesting to potentially get some seed raised yellow forms into northern hemisphere cultivation. Will persue this further.

[Maggi Young]

On the subject of Val M's lovely trillium..... here are two links in the forum for you to have a look at:
For a glimpse of the plant itself....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=886.msg20693#msg20693
for T00lie's pic of the real VM ( behind the angustipetalum) middle photo of the post

and here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4092.msg110776;topicseen#msg110776

 for  Bill Dijk's good yellow with a red base .

 

[mark smyth]

OM. wow.

Can someone add names to all the Trilliums? I want to tell Bob Gordon, no computer, about the Trilliums but I only know grandiflorum and rivale