Not trillium but...

Cypripedium acaule - Pink Ladies Slipper!! I found quite a few of these this morning and I'm trying hard not to start screaming my delight from the roof tops!! It's been too wet and stormy to get a picture but I will. Meantime I found a wild flower site from Conneticut that is amazing!! Here it is:-

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/galleryindex.html

Oooooo good for you Louisa!! They are beautiful and such treat to see growing wild. There are often yellow ones around too. As a kid I used to see them a lot but they aren't as abundant anymore. We were always told that it's illegal to pick lady's slippers. I don't know if that's true - or if it ever was true. But I know they should be left alone and admired in the woods. Picking the blooms will keep them from dropping seeds - and digging and trying to move them is rarely successful.

Have you been strolling through the woods in search of wild flowers? Early spring is always a good time to see nice ones. Before the trees block all the sun from them. Some go by so quickly you'll miss them if you're not out there checking every few days.

Oh my heaven's louisa what a find!!!!!!!!!
when i was a little girl, each spring my grandmother would take us to a place in the woods down a back road and show us lady's slippers, pink and yellow. I fear the spot is now under an interstate highway, but intend to snoop around a bit this year, just to see if my infant memory is correct in the site.

There was a spot where I lived for a while in Lowell ,Mass., that had large areas of them,mostly pink,before we moved they were buldozing the area for a housing tract.....I'll always have the picture of them in my mind.......

Oh gosh now I'm even more excited after reading your posts!! Tell me then, in some areas the builders have taken down trees and exposed a few of them to the sun. Should I leave them be or move them? Or should I really mulch them well, completely covering them until the tree canopy returns? I don't want to lose them!!

Kathleen I might have the white one too!! Some are still quite small!! I'm almost inclined to give up hardscaping and planting new things and concentrate on the wild!!

louisa, this requires expert advice, and I'm not it. I've had loads of luck with my moves, but it was blind luck - just taking enough dirt helps. But I should think you might want to leave them for now. Let me look up my old book and see what it says. You might want to contact the U of VA about them. I will say that I suggest strongly that you keep the site secret - these plants are often
"harvested" illegally for sale. O my goodness, what a treat and responcibility.

Louisa, a friend has some that are in the woods behind her house in a new subdivision. They are still doing fine. The pink ones and white(could it be 'showy orchis"?) are hard to relocate. They usually only last for 2-3 years, with a decline noted each year.

Thanks Cala - you mean they die out!!!

I have been looking for these plants/seeds to naturalize in our woods! I haven't looked around the internet much for them....any suggestions?

Some of the flowers are dying off now. I wonder how I would collect the seed? Maybe I should disect one and find out for myself!! Unless someone here can come up with the info!! Thanks Kathleen, I should have returned to this forum before now!!

I'd love to be able to get some seeds! I have 20 acres that are off limits to everyone--except the flora and fauna of course, and I would like to preserve some of the protected plants, I am in zone 5!

OK - I will see how I go about this. Maybe Kathleen can give me some pointers!!