The trilliums have been out and are mostly gone, petals fading pink. If you want to see them this year, don’t wait. I know it’s cold and wet but by next weekend there might be nothing to see.
I feel like I say this every year–probably because I do say this every year–but: it is not illegal to pick trilliums in Ontario. It is a spectacularly bad idea since it takes a plant seven years to flower and their habitat in South Ontario is not what it once was, but it’s not illegal. Transplanting trilliums will almost certainly kill them. (I still get regular google searches on how to bring a wild trillium home: DON’T). Most nurseries selling trilliums have taken them from wild habitats because of how long it takes to grow them from seed, and most of them will not survive the transplant to your garden. Trilliums like space, lots of leafy cover on the ground, and the early springtime shade of deciduous trees. If you don’t have that it’s unlikely they will grow for you.
If you do, then bring the seeds home and plant them and in a couple of years you should see the first leaves poking above the ground. Trilliums are not a plant for the impatient. They emerge in spring soonest from between the exposed roots of large, well-established deciduous trees on sun-facing slopes. If you’ve got one, plant them there.
They are gorgeous, though, aren’t they?
The tadpoles are also out, a bit earlier and a good bit larger than the ones Frances and I saw last year. A post on that coming when the tadpoles leave the pond on four legs. Plus the apple blossoms, dogwood, maples, elm, beech–looks like spring is going to keep me busy.
Zoopolis 