Trilliums are very common native plants here in the PNW and they often grow naturally in woodsy rural areas. But they are commonly sold in garden centers as well and all different varieties and colors. These are not wild harvested plants but commercially grown specimens and are adaptable to any shady garden situation. Just an update, but my trillium Volcano discussed above made its move without issue and thrived in my friend's garden for several years before he graciously shared a chunk with another friend. And that plant took transplanting well and has thrived also. Now that I have moved from a full sun beach location to one where I am more shelterer by trees and with considerable shade, a chunk of that plant is coming home to take up residence with me again!! So three moves and at least one division did no harm at all.

i use the miracle gro potting mix from start to finish and have great results. when the seedlings are about 5 weeks old i put a pinch of epsom salts in the soil and that gives them a big boost. i havent tried the other stuff but i am just saying what works for me. i do love reading all the different types of mixes you all use and i intend to try some of those in the future. miracle gro has always been good to me so i dont want to change the variance too much.....Al

We saw a few mayapple plants 4 or 5 years ago, and now we have A LOT of them in many places. (We have been cutting down the grey dogwood that has spread all over our property, so providing more space and light.) The mayapples move themselves well to new locations, so I assume there is some help from birds or animals? In which case I would think going with the seed will be successful. We have a 50 year old orchard that has been extremely neglected for some time, meaning many other trees and shrubs have grown up all over the place. I am sure that some of the clusters of mayapple are near a large black walnut tree. We also have been finding a lot of trilliums (including a big white one this year) and have a few spreading clusters of false Solomon's seal as well. I started one of those from seed, at least I assume the one that just came up in my official shade garden was from me burying a seed there, I can't recall for sure. Marcia

Mine just finished blooming about a week ago and are working on producing fruit. If not overly hot and dry, they last about half way through the summer here so how long they are visible in your woodland garden is very location dependent. Give the mayapple enough room to spread into a nice round colony. They look the best and grow most happily in large groups. FataMorgana