When we first created the Douglas fir bed, I tried desperately to fill in the new garden space with “native” plants. Like many naive gardeners, I didn’t do the research to see what plants were native locally–I just assumed that any US wildflowers would be perfect in a new shady wildflower garden.

I was really wrong, and I know that now. Most of the imports came and went in one season. The best exception is that one Trillium grandiflorum still lives in that bed and several others have taken hold where I planted them in the woodland garden. These are similar to the Trilliums of my childhood–Trillium ovatum that grow wild here in wooded areas all around Washington.

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For 2020, I hope to work carefully around these plants as I install native flora in the surrounding areas. I ordered Trillium ovatum seeds from Amazon, but some dastardly Chinese seller sent me rice hulls with a Trillium ovatum label! So, I will keep looking for seeds to start my own native Trilliums. They are such a wonderful plant.