My Shade Garden Survived

I cleaned out one more garden today and was trilled to find that my Trillium survived. I bought a couple plants last year and once I transplanted them into my garden they seemed to not do well. They are sensitive plants and are protected by law in New York State.

Picking Trillium for their flower can seriously injure the plant. The three leaves (more correctly leafy bracts) below the flower are the plant's only ability to produce food stores and a picked trillium can take many years to recover. For this reason in many areas, e.g. British Columbia, Michigan, New York, Minnesota, and Washington, it is illegal to pick and/or transplant trilliums from public lands without a permit from the State (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium)

I thought for sure that they wouldn't be back this year. Once I cleared away all the old leaves and grass that had overgrown my shaded garden I saw that the two trillium plants had comeback and were getting ready to flower.



My ferns also transplanted to my garden last year and again withered away and died soon after are coming back too. In fact once I cleared away all the grass and dead leaves I saw that all my hostas were back too. It looks like my shade garden will be doing quite well this year. I wonder what I will add to it for next year? Maybe my 50 Grecian windflowers, they will add some nice color to the shades of green mix I have planted already.