Trillium Time

Spring has finally arrived in Massachusetts, transforming gardens, grass, and trees in the space of a week. Woodland plants are my favorite ephemeral heralds, so yesterday I drove to the New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods to check them out. In a sea of bluebells and creeping phlox there were all sorts of varieties of trillium, which is what I was really after. It was a hunt of sorts, but not really that difficult, as my prey stood out.

First up are the varieties of the trillium cuneatum: whip-poor-will flower, large toadshade, and sweet little Betsy.

Trillium Cuneatum Whip-Poor-Will Flower

Trillium Cuneatum Large Toadshade

Trillium Cuneatum Little Sweet Betsy

Beautiful creamy trillium grandiflorum white wakerobin, “bent trillium” or trillium flexipes, and “nodding” trillium, which was hard to photograph, because it was indeed nodding.

Trillium Grandiflorum White Wakerobin

Trillium Grandiflorum White Wakerobin.jpg 2

Trillium Flexipes Bent

Trillium Nodding

Trillium recurvatum, prairie wakerobin, and yellow trillium, trillium luteum.

Trillium Recurvatum Prairie Wakerobin

Trillium Yellow

And the more striking pink and red varieties: I’m not sure what the formal name of this pink variety is, but the reds are trillium sulcatum, “southern red”, and trillium erectum, red wakerobin.

Trillium pink2

Trillium southern red sulcatum

Trillium Erectum Red Wakerobin

I definitely missed several varieties, but all in all, not a bad afternoon catch. And now I want a garden shed with a mossy roof!

Trillium House


3 responses to “Trillium Time

  • Louis Sirianni

    Donna Look to the right of the garage behind the fence and also behind the rhododendron. Lou

    On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 6:22 PM, streetsofsalem wrote:

    > daseger posted: “Spring has finally arrived in Massachusetts, transforming > gardens, grass, and trees in the space of a week. Woodland plants are my > favorite ephemeral heralds, so yesterday I drove to the New England Wild > Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods to check them ” >

  • Helen Breen

    Hi Donna,

    Wow, Garden in the Woods in Framingham – who knew? Great intro to spring at last.

    Gracias…

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