How to Grow Trillium in a Nursery – Lily Beck (Fall 2023)

Trillium, a genus of plants in the Liliaceae family, are groundcover perennial herbs native to areas across the US. Washington’s native species, Trillium ovatum, inhabits woodland ecosystems and provides food to herbivores as well as ants who eat their berries. Due to their early bloom season, Trillium is an important food source for early emerging pollinators. In the wild, Trillium are threatened by high levels of poaching. As a result of the long timeframe required to grow Trillium, nurseries have a difficult time growing this species, resulting in frequent poaching events. Trillium spreads through rhizomes (a horizontal underground stem that roots and sends shoots out from its nodes) which has a slow growth rate, making it hard for populations to recover from poaching. Nursery propagation can be an effective tool to combat this threat, though there is little known about Trillium propagation in nurseries around the Seattle area. I conducted a literature review to create a propagation protocol that nurseries could follow. I found that Trillium can be grown from seed or through rhizome propagation. When grown from seed, Trillium takes 2-3 years to emerge and an additional 2 years to flower. Rhizome collection should be done when Trillium is dormant, in late summer to early fall, and only when authorized to avoid destroying wild populations. To avoid disturbing wild individuals, nurseries could create habitat patches for Trillium to establish on their own to harvest from. As a native species, it is important for nurseries to understand how to grow Trillium to expand their knowledge of native plants. Growing Trillium successfully would increase the diversity of native plants offered for sale to restoration sites and neighborhoods. By increasing access to Trillium, nurseries will help conserve this species by lessening the need for poaching, reducing the loss of wild populations.

FINAL POSTER COMING SPRING 2024