White Trillium grandiflorum Snow Trillium Plants
(TRILL-ee-um  gran-dih-FLOR-um)
Easyliving Native Perennial Wildflowers
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White Trillium grandiflorium picture by cj

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Trillium seeds are not available at this time.
Trillium plants when available are $9 each plus UPS shipping.
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    Trillium grandiflorum White Trillium, (Lily family) is a charming native woodland wildflower suitable for growing in shade gardens over most of the Central & Eastern United States.  This charming wildflower brings inspiration and enchantment to the garden. Trillium plants have a simplistic elegance in three whorled leaves and large three-petaled white flower with slightly ruffled edges.  The large flowers are 2" to 4" across and are white when they bloom in spring--early summer (Apr--Jun) often turning pink with age. three petals have.  The contrasting foliage of ferns will help set off Trilliums showy flowers.

    Plant Trillium grandiflorum White Trillium in partial sun or open shade, and moderate moisture, in rich, loamy, sandy soil with ferns and other native woodland wildflowers like  Columbine  Green Dragon  American Spikenard  Jack-in-the-pulpit  Goat's Beard  Wild Ginger  Wild Geranium  Virginia Bluebells  Woodland Phlox  Jacob's Ladder  Bloodroot  Celandine Poppy   Woodland Spiderwort  Purple Trillium  Blue Cohosh  Black Cohosh  Shooting Star  Ginseng   Christmas Fern   Dutchman's Breeches 

      The large white trillium was adopted as the official wildflower of Ohio in 1987 and is found in each of Ohio's 88 counties.  Other common names are snow trillium, great white trillium, large-flowered trillium, snow trillium, trille grandiflore , & white wake-robin.  Trillium grandiflorum opens after Trillium erectum, when the two are found together.

      The delightfully unusual flowers of wild White Trillium grandiflorum are a harbinger of spring, they bloom in April & May and are found growing wild in the understory of rich deciduous or mixed coniferous-deciduous upland temperate forest of the Midwest and Eastern United States in moist shade in roadsides, floodplains, , ravines, along bluffs, and along rocky slopes in woods. Great white goes dormant with the heat of summer.

Trillium: Latin tres for three and lilium for lily
grandiflorum: large-flowered
Trillium grandiflorum seeds need cold-warm-cold stratified and germinate at 21 C. 

      Mature plants have a single stem, a whorl of three leaves and a single large flower with three white petals. Flowers bloom for 2–3 weeks in the early spring (late April to mid-May), before forest canopy leaves appear, and are pollinated by bumblebees.  The spring-blooming flowers of white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) start out white and fade to pink as the flowers age.  Trillium Plants can live for 25 years or longer and usually do not flower until they are several years old. Populations of white trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum) expand slowly, wild populations may be jeopardized in areas where they are heavily browsed by deer because the plants will die out after several years of repeated browsing.

      Trillium grandiflorum is the showiest of the trilliums and is highly prized in Europe and Japan.  White Trilliums grow from an underground rhizome, which often lies horizontally under the ground.  Cultivation of trilliums is slow, requiring several years from seed to flowering. Ants, flies and beetles pollinate trillium flowers and seeds are dispersed over small distances often by ants.  Chipmunks that take the fruit also help disperse seeds. Trillium seeds require consistently moist conditions to survive but can remain viable for many years provided they are in moist soil. Gardening with trilliums teaches the rewards of patience: after seeds germinate roots grow the first year, a single seed leaf the second and the first true leaf the third year.  The familiar three-whorled leaves often do not develop until the forth or fifth year and may require 2 or 3 more years to bloom.  Trilliums are long-lived, spreading slowly and taking several years to form a significant clump. Do not remove old flowers but let the seeds develop; ants will disperse them around your garden to start new clumps.  Great white trillium grows 8 to12 inches tall, and over several years can become a patch up to 18 inches in width. Trilliums are poor competitors, do not to plant aggressive plants nearby.

    White Trillium grandiflorum and purple Trillium recurvatum require fertile, humus-rich, well-drained soil and grow best in areas with morning sun and afternoon shade or the bright shade beneath deciduous trees or very tall conifers. In hot afternoon sun their foliage burns and in heavy shade they will not flower well. Trilliums are sensitive to light and full sun exposure is detrimental. For this reason, selective lumber harvesting will not destroy a trillium colony, but clear-cutting will. Trillium flowers are a favorite source of food for deer, and repeated grazing over several years will kill the plants.

     Picking a trillium flower does not necessarily kill the plant but damage will result if the green leaves are taken as well. The green leaves are needed for photosynthesis and if picked will not re-grow until the following year and this may not happen at all depending on the size of the rhizome.

The map below shows areas where wild White Trillium grandiflorum plants grow wild but they can be planted and will grow over most of the USA.  
USDA plant hardiness zones 2 to 8.

Trillium seeds are not available at this time.

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Large Flowered Trillium grandiflorum White Trillium Plant distribution map complements of USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1
  (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.