bloom day
I received an email yesterday announcing a sighting of trout lilies in bloom at Audubon’s Cedar Ridge Preserve.
The trout lily or white dog-tooth violet is always among the first wildflowers to bloom in the spring. It is a tiny plant that grows on hillsides and ravines in the damp woods. The name refers to the leaf mottling which resembles the speckling on a trout. The bulbs produce just one leaf in the first 6 years, then 2 leaves, a scape (stem) and a flower in the 7th year. Somehow I don’t think it is going to take the nursery industry by storm.
It is hard to explain the enthusiasm this little plant generates. Every year in late February to early March schools, museums, and naturalist groups organize field trips to the woods in search of trout lilies. I personally know of seven organized trips in the north Texas area in the coming weeks. Over the years I have been on a few such trips myself. Invariably it has rained. Yes, rain is predicted this weekend.
As far as I know there are no trout lilies in the woods where I live. I suspect it is too dry this far west. But perhaps I will go out later and look just the same. Want to come along?
February 15th, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
Sure, I’ll come along for the walk! We have yellow flowered troutlily here, but I can guarantee we won’t see them for several months yet–maybe late April, more likely mid-May.
February 15th, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
Aha! Now I know why we never saw flowers from the trout lilies we planted in IL - we left for Texas around the 3-year mark. Thanks, Bill - I’ll go walking with you, too.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
February 15th, 2008 @ 2:28 pm
I have never heard of them. Thanks so much for giving the details. Man, that is a plant that requires a lot of patience. I would have forgotten it by the seventh year!
February 15th, 2008 @ 4:44 pm
Oh how wonderful! We have the wildflower hikes and walks, especially in the Smoky Mountain parks near us, but it is usually next month when the ephemerals poke their heads up. I have the cultivar Pagoda, large yellow flowers, no mottling on the leaves, but am trying to find good sources for the native ones. Do please take up along on your walk!
Frances at Faire Garden
February 15th, 2008 @ 4:58 pm
I’d love to come along on that walk, if I could. The trout lily is definitely a plant for the patient gardener!
February 17th, 2008 @ 6:24 am
I’ll come for the walk too. In fact you made me think that it might be a time for a walk in our own local woods to see what’s happening. Don’t expect to find trout lilies here though.
February 17th, 2008 @ 10:20 am
I have some variety of the trout lily growing on the north-facing (wetter) slope in my woods. I have to get out there at just the right time to catch them.
February 18th, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
You are a modern day Walden Pond dude!
February 19th, 2008 @ 6:12 am
I’d never heard of a trout lily, but now I’m intrigued. How cool would it be to plant one, and then, seven years later, after you’d forgotten about it, or lost hope? A gift.
February 19th, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
I love the white Trout lilies. I haven’t been able to find a local source for them in Northern Illinois, so I had to send for them mail order. I can’t understand why, as they are common as dirt in the forest preserves around here & are so lovely, even without the flowers. I planted mine 2 years ago. It’s so hard to wait for them to mature enough to bloom.
February 20th, 2008 @ 10:39 am
I’d love to come for a walk in the woods! Trout lilies are lovely! I did plant some. I hope they come up this spring!
February 20th, 2008 @ 10:21 pm
now i really want to find some in the woods so i can plant them near the house and watch them.
February 24th, 2008 @ 10:51 am
I planted some a few years ago, now i know why i never saw them. Does any have a current source for them?