Topic: Trillium video

[Robert_Brenchley]

Here's a short video about one of my favourites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJWXHO6yGe0

[jennym]

Thanks for that one Robert. They are strange looking plants, can see the appeal! Do you find them easy to grow? and where do you grow them?

[Robert_Brenchley]

On the allotment. They're hard to find as they're slow to propagate and definitely not commercial plants, but you can find one or two species if you look. I have a good source of seed but they're extremely slow. I had a load of T kurabayashii passed on to me and find them quite easy, though people in the States who grow them (they're widely distributed there) often say they can grow some but not others. It's basically a woodland plant so it likes a bit of shade.

[valmarg]

Thanks for that video R_B.

They have been a favourite of mine since I first saw them.  I can't remember whether it was Wisley or Kew gardens that I first saw them, but I've tried several times to grow them without success.  They are beautiful, particularly the trillium grandiflorum, the white flowered variety in the clip.

valmarg

[Robert_Brenchley]

Did you start from plants or seed?

[valmarg]

My attempts at growing them have been from plants.

I think the comment from the video that they are rhizomes probably explains where I was going wrong.  I was treating them as bulbs, and probably planting them too deep.

valmarg

[Robert_Brenchley]

I just dig a hole and shove them in; the rhizomes aren't that far down, but there's no science to it. Probably about 2-3 inches.

[Froglegs]

Found a nursery that stocks them :),fancy a bash at growing them after seeing the video. The nursery is called  Dunge Valley Gardens not all that far from Saddad land. ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Broadleigh Bulbs have five species, and Paul Christian has them, but they're expensive.