At that price you can be sure that the trilliums were collected from the wild. That may have been legal, as some plant companies buy land with trilliums and other wild plants, harvest all the plants and then sell the land, but it is not ethical as the plants are lost to the wild. Having been collected bare root, bagged and trucked thousands of miles, they may be last season's plants and may not survive.

The yellow ones are native to area a long way south of Newfoundland and will be of questionable hardiness.

Here is a link that might be useful:

That's a great deal! and your giving them a good home too.

I have no problem with collecting plants from areas destined to be construction sites. A lot of land is bought, harvested and then subdivisions are built on them which would destroy whatever plants were there. Thank goodness the builders cared enough to let someone harvest the plants first.

The least we can do is give those poor plants a good home and restore them, rather than see them thrown out. I'd be thrilled to find some trilliums to grow in my own garden where they'd be cared for.

Not all good deals are shady. Not all plants from the wild are stolen.

Maybe you can dig up the yellow trillium bulbs, like dahlias or cannas in the winter.

Hi Sheryl,

Plant rescue is a wonderful thing. I've actually helped out in a rescue. The problem of illegal harvesting from the wild is a terrible problem. Bigger than you think! Trilliums, Jack in ther pulpits and ostrich ferns are some of the most popular.

Trilliums take many years to get them to a size where they will bloom and can be sold. There's no money to be made this way. I have a friend who is trialling trilliums raised form seed for part of his work in environmental rehabilitation projects. He's apposed to the collection from the wild which would make it easier. There are next to no cultivation stock at those prices. Let's face it, do you think that they care?

I just can't see a builder holding things up to allow someone to go through and salvage the plants. time is money.

It comes down to principles and ethics.
Sorry I just can't candy coat it and be able to swallow it.

Let us know if the packaging indicates that these plants are from cultivated stock.

Green Thumb Guy

Thanks for the interest in this thread. I just checked the packaging on the Trilliums and it does say that it is "grown in the USA from cultivated stock. Inspected by the US Department of Agriculture". I think that I may go back tomorrow to try to ghet a package of the white ones (not sure if it is grandiflorum). The size of the "bulbs" in my package are about as big around as a vienna sausage and about 2/3 as long as one (lol). I think that they sould survive the Newfoundland winter. I am in zone 5 and they are rated for zones 4-8.

I am happy to read that people are caring about the wildflowers in our nature. Just look what happend with the wild american ginseng, all gone....I still have some in my bush, and that is were they stay, for future generations.
3years ago we saved ladyslippers in Tobermory area. The road was been made wider and they would have been dead. So in the rain for 3 hr. we saved as many as we could.
I would also question the integrity of Wal-Mart???