the saddest part of this story is that when I mved into this house, we had a small untended backyard w/several trees. I came in and had most of them cut down. Then the stumps grinded. I felt so much guilt and thats one decision I'll regret for the rest of my life. It started this obsession with natives and a more natural approach to gardening. I guess something good came of it! I've been working so hard to replant other natives and to keep invasives in check to try and restore what that area was before I came in a ruined it. I can't beleive how many things are thriving back there after all the abuse I inflicted on it. I can tell you one thing, i will never tear a tree down or rip anything out unless absolutely necessary!! Now I have to plant a tree to better shelter all these jacks and trilliums b/c i've opened the canopy so much some are in alot of sun.

I have done it once via the winter sowing method. It took two years, i.e., the first summer nothing, and I just put the container in the shade and let the natural rain water it.(Sure glad it was not this summer!) I closed it up in the fall, and the following spring I had the one leaf sprouts. I have put them in the ground, and we shall see next year if they return. If you can sow the seeds fresh, you will have a better chance, even tho' it will probably take two years, too. I got my seeds from NARGS, so they were dry. Some people use the chilling in the frige method, but I never have that much room, so I don't do that. Either way it is a long process, requiring several steps. That is why they cost so much! I have had trilliums long enough so that I am now seeing "babies" out in the garden. Yeah!!

My trilliums are huge and keep blooming and blooming - the native white, and a red flowered form. They're growing in soil that over the years has been covered in many inches of goat manure, alfalfa hay, horse manure, chipper-shredder stuff, and are currently fertilized with urine diluted 1:10 in water, as described in the book Solviva. So I would not be afraid of fertilizer! They're under fir and deciduous trees, and I never water in the summer. I think I'll start, though. they've been blooming for 5 weeks now and no sign of stopping - they're gorgeous

For the Trilliums, go ahead and pot them and apply moisture, the sooner, the better. They will begin to emerge when their internal clock and soil temperature (normally about 55°F) reqirements are met. Sometimes, they do not set blooms the first year, when they have been out of the soil for an extended period, but there should be enough stored calories in the tuber to produce foliage. I have several hundred growing in pots and I just keep on collecting and planting seed! I wouldn't mind if my entire garden were covered with them. Enjoy! RB