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What to do with trilliums?

21 years ago

The new garden I acquired when I moved has a small clump of trilliums in it. Now of course, they are long passed bloom, but I'm not certain what I should do, if anything, about the dead looking leaves they have left behind? Do you need to pull these, cut them, etc? They appear to be bulb based trilliums.

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Comments (5)

Iris GW
21 years ago
You don't need to do anything with them. Just let the foliage wither away naturally.
razorback33
21 years ago
Even with the brown and withering foliage, if the stems are still upright, they likely have seed capsules at the apex of the stem or peduncle. Once the seed ripens and is expelled, the plant will completely detioriate and disappear. It is not a good idea to remove the foliage of Trilliums at any time, to do so can eventually cause their demise. In some areas, deer grazing has caused a serious decline in Trillium population, but they can't compete with hordes of people that commercially harvest them for a ready market!
Rb
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Trilliophile
21 years ago
I hate to disagree, but once the seed is expelled, which is always a good idea cause you get more Trilliums later, you can cut the ugly looking stem off right at the ground. Ususlly by then they have lost most of their chlorophyll and are switching to dormant mode. My rule is if more than 75% of green is gone and they have produced their seed, you are okay to edit it.
Some gardeners actually believe that by doing this you are helping the plant. Ephemerals go dormant because a switch is thrown that says they are losing more energy than they are producing. When you cut them down as they are going dormant, they are no longer losing that energy.
Me, I do it purely for aesthetic reasons. In the woods, leave them, in your garden, make it look better.
Aloha,
t
Treedoc66
21 years ago
To cut or not to cut....that is the question!
The whole world is watching.....

Rx
Ognyen
21 years ago
My dad's had a thriving trillium bed in an elm hedge for as long as I can remember (Minneapolis suburb). All he does is give an annual raking. No cutting at all.

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