Today's Favorite Plant in the Garden - Trilliums!

Nothing tells me it is Spring more than the appearance of Trilliums in the garden.

Just waking up from a long Winter's nap.

I have placed a stone in front of each patch, so when things warm up in the Spring, I begin to look for them.

Trillium erectum (Wake-Robin) just out of the bark and unfurling.

Their appearance also means I have to be ever vigilant with my rambunctious French Bulldog Yvette, because of her fondness for steamrolling my flowerbeds chasing squirrel-ees, crows and airplanes (yes, airplanes).  I know that Yvee can take out an entire stand of tender Trillium in one bound and once a stem is broken, there's no going back.  I have some Azaleas missing entire chunks due to her antics.

Azalea "Yvette Steamrollered"

Although I have several different types, it is hard to beat the common white grandiflorum for beauty and fragrance. If you get down to their level, they are quite fragrant.  They truly are beautiful and their ability to bloom pure white and then change with age to a red wine color is striking. 

Trillium grandiflorum (White Wake-Robin)

They are good buy at the nursery also, generally for around $8 and you may get lucky and get a pot with more than one stem. In just a few years, they slowly spread into little groups with multiple flowers.

I generally deadhead them once the flowers are done, so that they don't put all their energy into making seeds, but, I have had luck with letting some of them go to seed and spreading the seeds around myself.  This year, I have noticed several new plants in places I would never have planted one.  Ants will also help with seed distribution.

They are very happy in dry shade with supplemental summer water.  The leaves will last all summer provided they are taken care of.  They can get a little tattered by fall however, and some do disappear over summer. 

Lots of babies popping up!

This year, I have one group that has had some interesting variations - one of the flowers almost looking orchid-like.

Another beauty is this Wake Robin.  The flowers are a pretty chocolate brown.  Unfortunately, the flowers nod, so you really have to get down to their level to enjoy them.

Trillium erectum (Wake-Robin)

Trillium flexipes (Bent Trillium)

Trillium luteum (Yellow Wake-Robin)

Trillium recurvatum (Bloody Butcher)

More Yellow Please!

I'm always behind in plant fads/trends and the latest "must have" plants offered.

Generally, in the plant world, anything cool, unusual, for shade, or variegated is astronomically priced, so generally far too expensive for me to enjoy. When I do find something cool or unusual, I tend to buy small and let things grow to save money.

One easy trick I have used for some variety in the garden is to incorporate "yellow" plants.  There are many easily affordable plants with beautiful yellow foliage and they really do pop in the flower beds.  On a cloudy evening like last night when I took these pictures, they still shine.

Hosta 'Fire Island' - To die for right? 

Choisya ternata 'Sundance' (Mexican Golden Orange Blossom)

Sedum repestre 'Angelina' - Angelina can be a bit of a rampaging thug, but it is easy to pull out.

Euonymous japonicus aureeo-marginatus

Tradescantia 'Unique Gold' (Golden Spiderwort) - I admit it, I sometimes garden with champagne too!

Berberis thunbergii 'Sunjoy Gold' (Gold Pillar Barberry)

Oregano

Sedum

Heuchera 'Harvest Lemon Chiffon' (Coral Bells)

What to do with My Noxious Butterfly Weeds?

In 2006, before my house sale closed, I began buying plants for my soon to be garden.  I was living in Beaverton at the time and one of the local plant places I visited, went out of business. 

The nursery had a big going out of business sale and I got many great plants for almost nothing.

What I ended up with included three Buddleia davidii (Butterfly Bush). I believe the varieties were 'Black Knight', "Royal Red' and 'White Profusion'.  They were $2.00 each. What a bargain! 

The noxious weeds are left, center and far right (behind the Arborvitae)

My mother had Butterfly Bush in her garden in Wisconsin and I always thought they were pretty.  Since I wanted to have a garden appealing to bugs, butterflies and hummingbirds, they seemed like a good plant.

I planted the the three Butterfly Bushes in the front border of the perennial bed across the front of the yard. 

'White Profusion'

I learned a little while later that these plants were on the State of Oregon's Noxious Weed List and they they were going to be illegal to sell at nurseries in the future. They would only be able to sell sterile varieties going forward, but it didn't mean I had to remove mine of course. But it kind of made me want to.

"In Oregon, the ODA officially classified it as a class "B" noxious weed in 2004. This plant is a pioneering species that dominates open habitats. It poses an ecological threat to dry-land meadows, open slopes and dunes, dominating these sites as much as Scotch broom has historically. It also invades reforested sites, resulting in a loss of forest productivity."

But they smell so pretty.

Once I knew they were potentially invasive "weeds", I took care to keep them from spreading. Every year before the blooms go to seed, I hack them all off to make sure they do not seed in any part of my garden (I don't want to pull them out either!) and I compost the clippings.  Every fall, I hack the entire plants down to about a foot in height.  'White Profusion' still manages to grow to 10' each growing season.

"Bee Nirvana"

Each year before they leaf out, I think about ripping them out, but they are kind of like old friends.

If you were me - what would you do?

Love or Hate?

I admit it. I should have known better, but I didn't.  I made a mistake! 

They seem so cute and innocent.  With their little blue flowers looking like little clusters of grapes. 

So I divided them, spread them around and encouraged them. 

Little did I know how insidious they can be. 

Muscari botryoides

I wised up last year and I began removing large amounts of the Muscari, I had in previous years, planted in patches all around my yard. 

The thing with these little buggers is that each big bulb makes lots of tiny bulbs that sprout if left behind and of course they immediately fall off when you dig them out. 

If you dig out the big bulbs, you must search the soil left behind for all the small bulbs, or you have to go back next season and DIG out all the little sprouts.  If you yank out a sprout, you just pull out the single first leaf and leave the bulb behind, which will re-sprout later.

I have resorted to removing large clumps dirt and all and composting it all. Then filling in the hole with new soil.  

I should have known better...