What: Trillium luteum, commonly called yellow trillium, sports yellow flowers, which are rare among trillium species. Yellow trillium’s three petals reach up like translucent wings from the center of its three, mottled, olive-and-blue-green leaves. Trillium luteum does not form a tight clump like other trilliums, but rather spreads more widely to create an patch that can be interplanted with smaller perennials and bulbs.
Where: Yellow trilliums are woodland wildflowers that grow best in light, open, or dappled shade. Ideally, this is a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade or the bright shade beneath deciduous trees or very tall conifers. In too much shade they will not spread or flower well, in hot afternoon sun their foliage burns.
Size: Grows to 1 foot by 1 foot in 10 years. Gardening with trilliums teaches the rewards of patience: young plants can take three to five years to bloom and another five to eight years to develop into a nice clump.
Care: All trilliums require fertile, humus-rich, well-drained soil, and the eastern North American species, such as this one, must have regular additional water during summer. Do not remove old flowers but let the seeds develop, ants will disperse them around your garden to start new clumps.
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