None of those you list are bulbs or corms. Some are tubers. Bulbs would be things like Narcissus, Galanthus or Muscari. Corms would be Crocuses, for example.

Indeed, none of those are bulbs or corms. Maybe part of the problem is you are treating them like they are?

What are the growing conditions where you are trying to get these plants established? Where have you been ordering or getting plants from? And what kind of white trilliums?

"I'd love to grow stinking benjamin (yes lovely common name) a red trillium, but it likes limey soil and we're acidic."

dbarron, I'd do additional research on this before giving up. I find nothing in the literature that addresses this requirement and in fact, the vast majority of trillium species, including T. erectum, lean to acidic soil conditions or towards neutral but none that I am aware of require 'limey' soil.

Yes, I may be misremembering, but I do remember at least one or two of the red trilliums requiring alkaline soils (surprisingly)..but it might be worth trying at some point. I had just tried grandiflorum (now) so will see how it does. Luteum and recurvatum, and the miniature prairie trillium (T pusillum) have done well for me. And vaseyii (if I remember correctly) at a previous house.

Edit: Vaseyi is the red flowered sweet wake robin (alkaline)..boy I goofed that up. And the one I meant was flexipes that did well at the Oklahoma house.

I guess the only distinction in my mind is that most bulbs / corms etc., are planted in fall, and you don’t see growth above ground til spring. Fibrous rooted perennials are better off planted earlier.

That said, though, the bleeding hearts I have planted had a long thick root like a parsnip or horseradish. Those I planted in very early spring. They have done very well.

It’s been a while since I last planted them : but the trilliums were knobbly things that in my mind I called a corm. But what distinguishes a bulb from a corm or a tuber, I don’t know.

I ordered Trillium Grandiflorum. Those did not come up except for one from the first batch from a well-known nursery. They replaced them but I still had no luck. Ditto the jacks I ordered. Then I ordered a smaller white trillium, and trillium luteum from a nursery on Ebay . The luteum came up and has done very well ever since, but only 1 white trillium.

The Dutchman’s breeches from another nursery on Ebay were very tiny “bulblets” like grape seeds. The only area where they came up was a bed where the squirrels were not active that year.

I do have red prairie trilliums from my mom’s garden I’ve been growing for over 15 years. They are doing well and gradually expanding.

FWIW, Trillium Grandiflorum IS native to this area. Also red prairie trillium. Just down the road from me are great swathes of it. Dutchman’s breeches are also found locally.

I am planting these in a little woodland I am making under mature ash and spruce trees.

I wonder linnea, if the close relative 'squirrel corn' to 'dutchman's breeches' is a hint to us city dwellers ? :) (note: squirrels in my area are almost extinct outside city limits, or prefer to live in cities where shooting is illegal) :)

The actual bulblets are kinda because they are very fragile and break apart easily, resulting in seed like behavior. A whole 'plant' is composed of multiples of those bublets and will usually flower as an adult. Three of the five I ordered were whole, the others I dispersed into small cup containers to grow on for one season (assuming I bury them to prevent drying out and freezing both). So many bulbs turn to mush when abruptly frozen, so I will try to heel them in for their own protection (though I've seen dicentra growing on rocks that would almost certainly flash freeze).

I'm going to kinda say I wimped out and ordered from ebay on a mixed trillium bag and was shocked to find trilliums that had rotted growing foliage in the peat. Almost certainly wild dug to my horror. Anyway I knew they would almost certainly just rot on me. I planted them anyway...and most of them lived to my complete surprise. I had grown the species listed before...(luteum, recurvatum, and pusillum) from plantlets commercially propagated (Seneca Hills Perennials if I recall correctly). Flexipes was from a teenaged buy in a little plastic envelope in Lowes I think. I'm certainly no longer a teen, and that plant had done well for me and moved two houses (was sad to leave it behind when I moved to Texas...too hot for it).

Fleeting beauties (well ephemerals *lol*) but beauties.

One that comes to mind that might do well (because it has for me right up against north wall..that's low light) is polemonium reptans (Jacob's ladder). For me it often doesn't die back (if enough moisture) and it gently reseeds and has a relatively attractive foliage.