How wonderful! I just discovered bloodroot last year, and the sole plant I acquired has already grown into a clump. I just planted two more solos and am hoping they'll all spread! :)

I spread seeds from my plants around last year and am seeing seedlings.

We have several spots of blood root and they are indeed a cool little plant. The white flowers are so pretty and the kids love it if we show them a root and how red the insides are. My kids love learning the names of plants and something "visual" like that (the roots) will surely remind them of the name.

Barb

I didn't know you could sow the seeds. I thought ants had to do it. I'll give that a try too, thanks for the tip Elaine.

It definitely works. Just collect the ripe pods and scatter. I think ants may be involved, because the seedlings don't come up in a solid stand like asters or violets; they come up singly and not always where you put the seed. The trick is to recognize them, because I have far too many violet seedlings in my spring wildflower bed and they kind of look like violets at the one-leaf stage.

The seed has a fleshy aril on the side of it, this is what the ants go after and carry the seed away. The seed will germinate very readily if this aril is not allowed to dry out before planting. If it does dry out, the seed takes 1-2 years to break dormancy.

I very much enjoy my bloodroot, and it is not liked by the deer which is also a plus in my garden. In addition to the usual bloodroot I was also fortunate to have a customer of mine give me divisions of her double flowered form. Here's a photo I took of one of the clumps over the weekend.

I must have a few thousand od bloodroot and close to a hundred of the double. Of course, this is after some 30-40 years. The first came into bloom over a month ago and with the cool weather there are still some in bloom.

The seeds are extremely short-loved, and require a substance called GA-7 (a different form of the usual GA-3 growth hormone), which occurs naturally in the soil they usually grow in. From what I've read, the seed pods flop down onto the ground when mature, and there's some fleshy stuff on it that attracts ants, who think it's food and carry it to their nests, where the new plants tend to grow. :) That's probably why you rarely see the seeds - the ants get to them first. If you get the seeds as the pods open, you should probably sow it onto the soil at the spot where you want more to grow and just wait. Wonderful plants. Love them.

Boy look at those double-flowered ones! Spectacular. And to have a thousand odd ones...Sigh.

The squirrels dug up and ate the 6 roots I planted 2 years ago :(

I have got to find some more to plant!

An suggestions of where I might find it for sale?

Thanks,
-M.J.

MJ,
I bought several Bloodroot from a person who grow them.
If you mail me I can give you his address.
I want to buy double-flowered one and anyone know
where I can get?
Kiki

I discovered that I have the double-flowered - got it at a plant exchange. I was astonished when it bloomed as I was expecting the single flowers! Garden in the Woods in Mass. has three different varieties, including the double-flowered.

I didnt have good luck with bloodroot, it dryed up and died the first year- forgot to water it the first year,. sigh..

Darell Probst, the epimedium man, sells double flowered bloodroot he calls 'Tennessee Form' and also a pink strain. Call him at 978-928-4808. (BTW, the pink form is $40.00)

Besides bloodroot, I am now finding Trillium on the downside of my lot AND, this year have found for the first time Asarum canadensis in a path. Most of these babies do show up in paths as I imagine they don't have the competition of other plants. I have to be careful if (when?) I weed there.

The flowers on my bloodroot are considerably smaller than those in that picture. Leaves are the same though.

Jung Seed & American Meadows sell bloodroot.

Squirrels ate bloodroot? Seriously? I thought that would kill them. The extract from the roots is extremely dangeorus. I won't go near that stuff.

I have too much sun for bloodroot. Heavy Sigh. I have tried seeds and plants five times. I do have one place where the sweet woodruff is finally thriving. Should I try again????

Why not plant a couple trees or open shrubs above it for shade? :)

Although I like the look of the double flowered Bloodroot, I think it should be contained in captive gardening only and not allowed to mix with our local wild bloodroot populations,it could interbreed with them thereby weakening the normal strains. Our Natives have enough to worry about without adding mutant genes to the problem.

The concern for double flowered bloodroot "weakening" the normal variety is ill-founded. There are variations in the number of petals occuring in native populations and the floro pleno cultivar is doubtlessly a selection from among those with greater petal numbers. In my experience, it shows more robust growth than the normal variety and may well be a naturally occuring mutant. In any event, it is not going to threaten the vigor of the regular variety.

Oh, Okay I didn't know that. I love Bloodroot but sense it grows up in odd places, It isn't something I'm going to do for my garden right now if the new homeowners to my parents house ( where I have planted my garden see plants growing up all over at odd ends ( blood)root can do this,vie ants ect., then they are more likely to see my woodland garden as not a native restoration but a weed patch. Hopefully I can post a sign stating the plants value and they will it be.