Winterberry Farm Primitives

This blog is now devoted to gardening with native plants with a focus on those species native to the east coast of the United States. With an MS in Agricultural Science from the University of Delaware and my love of native plants, I hope to help folks see the beauty and necessity of using native plants in your garden instead of exotic plants. Did you know that our native song birds and native insects are disappearing as our local environments continue to change?
For those who come to this page to see my 'Winterberry Farm Primitives' blog can now be found at http://winterberryfarmprimitivesshopblog.blogspot.com/ where I will post new additions to my online antiques shop at http://www.winterberryfarmprimitives.com/ and discuss various subjects about primitive antiques.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Trilliums!


Work! Work! Work! That's all I am doing these days! I am posting some more pictures of my trillium has they looked last week. They are now starting to go to seed and there should be more little seedlings for next year! The big trillium above is Trillium erectum and it is a beauty! It is in a bed that is moist throughout the year and gets partial sun for most of the morning. The other pictures show one of my Trillium grandiflorum plants with their white flowers and some Trillium sessile babies that are not yet old enough to flower (they must be at least 7-8 years old to flower). The yellow flowered trillium are Trillium luteum.




















I am also posting a few pictures of the work I have been doing getting my last BIG experiment started! What I am posting today are some pictures of the rhizomes that I will be using in this experiment. I have 1280 rhizomes that are ready, willing and able to go into the hydroponic troughs to prove my hypothesis that Actaea racemosa rhizomes, whether they are cut up or whole, can survive and grow in a commercial hydroponics system. I am using rhizomes between the ages of 3-7 years old and will hopefully at the end of this 2-3 month experiment have rhizomes that are the size and maturity of 12-18 year old rhizomes! Unfortunately, I cannot post pictures of the actual experiment until I am ready to publish my results but I will keep you posted on what is happening! As I get the rhizomes into the experiment and get things started, I will be back to posting more regularly and will continue the postings on native plants for your garden! Thanks to all of you loyal readers out there for sticking with me through this busy time and wish me luck as I continue this important work with this amazing native medicinal plant!

2 comments:

  1. I do so love Trilliums. I'd love to encourage our wild trillium to fill in a little faster, but I'm always daunted by their slow germination, and the years it takes to bloom. I've decided that nature is doing fine on her own here...and she's much more patient than me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi!
    My Master's thesis was on the use of tissue culture to decrease time to flower and to find another way to propagate trillium so they would not be taken from wild populations (I see a pattern here in my graduate work...LOL!). I was successful in meeting those goals and I hope that some of the nurseries out there are using my technique! When you buy trillium from nurseries - ask how they are propagated - not grown - there are some nurseries out there now using tissue culture to propagate their trillium! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete