How to cultivate

For best results start off with good material, preferably a pot-grown trillium that has more than one flower, or you could buy a rhizome from a nursery specialising in trilliums. • Trilliums, which need friable soil that holds moisture but is free-draining, are best grown under deciduous trees and shrubs. Provide shelter from summer sunshine and autumn winds, and give them space to shine. Dress with well-rotted leaf litter in late autumn, but do not cover the crowns. • If you choose to plant rhizomes, these need to be planted as soon as they arrive, in friable soil enriched with leaf mould or leaf litter, and planted with their tip just below the surface. • Feed your trilliums to keep them in leaf for as long as possible. Sprinkle a slow-release fertiliser, such as Vitax Q4 (vitax.co.uk), round them in late winter and then foliar feed them with seaweed extract. • Ideally, clumps should be left undisturbed, but if you need to divide them, do so in May, June and July when the leaves are still attached. • Seeds need to be sown when ripe. Plant societies, such as The Alpine Garden Society (alpinegardensociety. net), often have them on their seed list. • You’ll need patience if growing from seed. Nothing will appear for 18 months as trillium seeds need two warm spells and two cold spells. Eventually, single leaflets (reminiscent of a lily) will rise up and then go dormant within a month or so. The pot must be allowed to bake in summer and then be subjected to cold in winter. The process is repeated over several years, usually seven, before a flower appears. Nurserymen speed the process up by placing the tiny rhizomes in a refrigerator for six weeks, to shorten the dormancy period. They also score mature rhizomes behind the terminal bud to encourage new growth.