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Whenever I think of trilliums, I recall a spring day more than 20 years ago. I was traveling across Vermont and stopped at a train cross. Just as I began to pull away I happened to look across the car to the fields on the opposite side, and in an instant I literally hit the brakes. There, only a short distance away, was an enormous expanse, acres and acres, of Trillium grandiflorum! It was a sight such as I’d never seen before and which I certainly will never forget.

As I recall it now, a small bit of woodland, mostly silver maples and other trees that would tolerate the wet ground, fringed the field in such a way that the direct rays of the sun were broken for a considerable distance into the open area. The woodland itself and the entire open area were a solid sheet of white. There were not merely thousands of trilliums; there were millions!

Today, less than a mile from my home, there is a small woodland patch which each spring is carpeted with the largest Trillium grandiflorum I’ve ever seen. But no display of trilliums will ever surpass that earlier one, with its accompanying spring sunshine, its pleasing smell of thawing fields, its willows and poplars in full flower, and its gray birches unfolding their leaves. More than any display of tulips or daffodils, or of greening lawns and unfolding trees, that gigantic splash of snow trilliums was my lifetime’s mightiest realization of the glory of spring.

There are some 30 species of trilliums scattered over North America, with countless forms, no doubt, varying in color from the typical bloom. Most of these are hardy in New England with no more than nominal protection of boughs or leaves to keep them from too much freezing and thawing during the winter. Somewhat more care must be given to locating them in the garden, however, and also to the soils in which they are planted.

All trilliums, so far as I know, are found growing in the partial shade of deciduous woodland. That means that during their flowering period there is a considerable amount of sun and, of course, moisture. Then, as the tree leaves grow, the trillium flowers fade, the seed pods form and there is a gradual ripening of the foliage, with dryer soil conditions causing the thick root to harden. Some varieties lose their foliage very quickly; others will be found still green daring the fall months.

It has always been best, I have noted, when growing plants of this type in the garden, to place them in dryer soil than they endure in nature. Incidentally, although in the wild the finest flower displays are usually on wet soils, the larger roots are almost always found on dryer ground. During the dormant period, trilliums must be dry and cool. To insure this, place them under other permanent plants in the border, put them on the north side of the home, or see that they have a mulch of leaves or lawn clippings. Most of them grow at a depth of about 3 inches when cultivated, but in the wild they are usually found just under the surface, particularly if there is a permanent cover of leaves and small growth.

As for soils, I do not consider trilliums hard to please. While certain kinds are found on heavy clay loams and others on sandy or silty. ground, all seem to grow equally well on any good garden soil, without extremes of acidity or alkalinity. If your soil has a reaction of about pH 6, is well drained and cool in summer, and if it lacks much decaying vegetable matter, or manure, you should have little difficulty. This last stipulation may sound odd, but in my experience, trillium roots grow in the top level of mineral soil, just below the duff and humus of the woods floor, and I have seen definite evidence of rotting in over rich soils.

Although I have grown most of the available trilliums in open beds or in a shade bower here in Vermont, I shall confine my comments to those which I am familiar with in their wild state in this area and which I frankly consider far superior to those obtainable from other regions.

Four trillium species are common to New England, though all of them are found in other areas as well. Two of the four are among the most showy members of the family, with flowers above the average in size and with the blooms held erect above the foliage in such a way that one is instantly aware of them when seen in the distance. The other two are less commonly found and have the charm of rarity.

by F Abbey