Chameleon Trillium
The Trilliums I wrote about previously are full of surprises. First it took 2 years to appear and now it has done a color shifting chameleon/octopus/cuttlefish act and turned from pure white to pink. Not exactly completely pink but pink stripes. The flower petals are starting to thin indicating the end of bloom time but 2 weeks for a wild flower is pretty good I think. I liked the Trilliums so much, I bought another one at the annual Mastergardeners sale the past weekend a T. luteum "Lemon Toadshade, Yellow Wakerobin and hopefully we won't have to wait several years for it to bloom.
The Trilliums we have seem to be a cross between GRANDIFLORUM, f. grandiflorum and GRANDIFLORUM, f. roseum since they are not uniformly pink.
http://www.trilliumresearch.org/species2.html
posted by Ki at
5:02 AM
8 Comments:
Hello Ki,
This color-change question was asked of an Alabama Garden Columnist and he thinks it could be either T. grandiflora or T. catesbaei and that pollination may trigger the change in color, just as it does in some other white flowers, and some roses.
Interesting, whatever is going on!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Interesting re: the color change. FWIW, Annie and Ki, the wild native trilliums in the woods behind my parents' house do the same kind of darkening when they "fade" at the end of blooming.
Nice! My trilliums have demanded patience from me, as it took them 3 years to come up at all, then another year to bloom! But I sure love them...my "lemon trillium" hasn't bloomed yet, but I'll love to see pics of yours!
Sorry for the delay in responding... connection problems.
Very interesting information Annie. You are a fount of knowledge...almost typed font. The pink gets darker by the day. I'll add a photo later to show the dark stage. Thanks for the info.
Hi Kim, and I thought I had a unique form of Trillium. Shucks. Pretty interesting though. Hey if you visit your parents when the Trilliums are in bloom please post photos.
Hi Lisa, I'm afraid you and I will have to wait a year for the yellow one to bloom. I looks like it has little buds on the top of the leaf but it hasn't done anything so I don't think it will bloom. Oh well, I waited 2 years for the white/pink ones to bloom so I guess I can wait another 2 for this one. I hope yours will bloom next year and if it does please post of picture of it.
Hey Ki, I won't get there this spring, unfortunately--that second job at the garden center is getting in my way! However, if you can follow this link you'll see a picture from an earlier blog post of mine from March re: "Visiting the Black Swamp"... the darker pink trillium flower at the top of the cluster is almost spent while the others are still very white:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_ZZaCksscUwk/RgXhoTUOfbI/AAAAAAAAASw/FwB6GV0p2YM/s1600-h/DSC01707.JPG
Hi Kim, the link got truncated by the comment window but I will take a look by going back through your archived blogs. I hope they're not working you to the bone at the garden center. Thanks for pointing me to the trilliums.
I love the idea of the Trilliums changing colour. This pink colour is so soft and beautiful. The last picture is gorgeous with the rain drops on the flower petals.
Hi Kate, it rained at night and ended just before morning so the droplets were still clinging to the flower petals. Luckily the wind hadn't come up yet to spoil the effect. The color reminds me of peppermint candy but it's getting darker every time I look. Thanks for the comment.
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