beautiful deep maroon flower
Finding Red Trillium blooming in the woods is a sure sign that spring is really here for good. I enjoy seeing these flowers very much and spotting them along a trail is as good as finding a $5 bill along the street, only better! There are a couple state parks in NH that have an abundance of trillium blooming during the Memorial Day holiday but most often I see just a few at a time when out hiking.
But careful, don’t put your nose too close to this lovely wildflower or you will quickly discover that it’s scent,“like decaying meat”, is designed to attract flies for pollination rather than bees since it makes pollen but no nectar. My earliest memories of Stinking Benjamin are of my nana talking about them – I can still hear her voice saying “Stinking Benjamin.”
These photos come from my shade garden where I transplanted a single plant many years ago. You can see it is quite happy there since it has spread into quite a large cluster of plants. It is a beautiful, sunny Sunday and I hope to get out for a woods walk some time today and see some trillium out in the wild.
happy clump of stinking benjamin
tri-leaves and tri-petals
the flowers face down when first opening. i laid on the ground and aimed up to take this shot
To see previous posts in my flower friends series see:
composting words 
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On the ground again? Snapping away at flowers again? That sounds sooo familiar!! 😉
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🙂
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Trillium ovatum is common in our woods and one of the first bloomers you see when you are hiking. I added trillium to my garden as a node to this event. During the past two years I added the Red Trillium. They are both in bloom right now…it is amazing.
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Agree!
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What fun to have them blooming in your own garden. Have you seen the white trillium as well where you are?
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Yes we occasionally see the white ones with the pink centers.
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