I'm hoping this would be the right forum to post this,
for 3 years in a row I've acquired mayapples to grow and 3 years now they haven't come up. It may still be too early, but all the other woodands are coming up that I planted, the dutchmans breeches, trilliums, bloodroot, black and the blue cohosh isn't up yet, neither is any of the solomon seal.
I've lost my golden seal I wish I had it again, there are a few other woodlands I'd love to trade for , I think I lost the trout lily also, looking for yellow trillium, I saw some on ebay, it was beautiful.
I have tons of things I can trade if anybody has any extra woodland plants that I don't have already.
What is it with Mayapples
I'd also like to try my luck at turks cap, I seem to have lost the tiny one that I once had.
kathy
Probably a bit early for Mayapples yet even in your zone.
Give them a few weeks.
Ric
I will, thanks
kathy
I am in the Atlanta area and a friend from down the street just gave me a mayapple. Hers are in a very big clump - fully up and big... She says they want forest floor soil, and her beds are really black and crumbly.
Sterling
Mine are not up yet at all..but I know they are difficult to transplant.
When we put ours in we just used pieces of root.
The soil does need to be loamy for best results but they grow everywhere here in the clay soil.
I'll be thinning them out in a few months if anyone needs any.
We'll also have seed later in the year if anyone's interested.
Ric
Well, I did plant these in the woods so to speak LOL, I've been watching, nothing yet. we're having really cold days well 42 is cold to me, 32 at night, I'm hoping theyll show themselves soon enough
kathy
I would love to be able to grow mayapples,I have the right envioronment,its just that every early spring it floods,and I guess thats why the ones I try didn't make it.I wonder if seed is the way to go,or root cuttings,Iwill certinly prepair for the wash,and make a flood bank.any sugestions would be welcome.I also want a shade garden,and believe me this area only gets filtered light.Mike
There are many things you can have...let's see...Astilbe, Cimicifuga, Thalictrum, Acorus, Ferns, Aruncus, Anemone canadensis, Galium, Hostas, Primula, Rodgersia, Tricyrtis....and I could send you some Mayapples...but they do NOT transplant well. Nancy
I think I'm beginning to see that about transplanting may apples LOL
guess you have to be very fortunate to have them in the first place.
Actually when you have them naturally you don't want them...I would be very pleased if they all went away. They are in the wrong place..come up through other things I like and hide them, then slowly trun yellow and look awful until they go dormant. They are also hard to get rid of onece you have them. Grass is always greener. Now if it were squirrel corn, or trilliums or ladys' slippers.
I've heard of squirrel corn what is it?
dicentra canadensis
I moved my mayapples to another spot and thought I had gotten all of them, but there are a dozen coming up in the old place now. The problem is that I've got one little lady's slipper coming up, and 3 mayapples are almost on top of it. I don't dare touch the lady slipper for fear of losing it.
You are right not to touch that Ladys' Slipper...which one?
It's a pink one I got last year on a plant rescue. The state would only let us have 3, and we had to sign a paper saying we wouldn't sell them. I only see signs of one coming back, but I have the other 2 marked just in case they are sleeping in. :-)
They have to have the right soil...environment....the same from which they came....and still may not make it. Good luck and I am glad you have one coming through. They are very special.
Hi Kathy Ann! Here the Mayapples are always a bit behind the trilliums sprouting, and the trilliums have'nt started up yet here either. Don't lose hope just yet. If some that I sent make it, maybe they're still on a Ky schedule,lol. If they don't show up, I wonder if transplanting when dormant would increase chances of success. I'd be glad to dig some as they go dormant later in spring/early summer for you if they're a no show.
Neal
Just out of curiosity,would I be better off trying may apple seed,if so ,when??Mike
quoting...."It grows readily from seeds sown outdoors in late Fall or early winter. In fact groups of seedlings are easily found in May or June where fruits fell to the ground the previous Fall." Remember this is poisonous..except for the fruit. This guy also disagrees with me in that he says it its easily transplanted to the right conditions. He, being Edwin F. Steffek, knows a bit more than I. LOL
I will be on the look out for a start in the fall.I guess I need to find someone to get the seeds from,when available.Thanks Mike
The snow we had has melted off.
Our Petasites are in full flower.
Trillium are well up.
Bloodroot just starting to poke thru.
Mayapples still sleeping.
Usually they are coming up hard when we are 'shrooming.
Still a long ways away.
I should have plenty of Apples for seed harvesting.
Ric
My trillium and bloodroot are up too, along with the calandine poppies and woodland poppies, no solomon seal yet, and still no may apples, we're warming up next week.
I'll have to post here if they come up. I wouldn't care if they did take over, are they edible?
kathy
NNOO!!
ALL parts of the Mayapple are Toxic if eaten.
Unless the Apples are fully ripe they are too.........just less poisonous.
A cancer drug, podophyllin, from a root extract is being tested .
Podophyllin is also used to burn off warts.
Not something to mess around w/.
Ric
LOL, I had no idea, Glad I asked I'd be dead on the woods floor from eatin apples LOL
kathy
We have mayapples here growing in the woods. I've been letting them do their thing. I like them a lot better than the garlic mustard weed that I've been fighting back there. These are wild, but at our old house I had some that did well as transplants from my Mom's house in Kentucky. I don't recall doing anything special when I planted them.
LOL I don't want anyone to get poisoned! Quoting again from Mr. Steffek~~~~"greenish yellow fruits that look somewhat like small lemons, and while I cannot say I am particularly thrilled by them, small boys seem to relish them. The taste is somewhat like a poor quality cantaloupe and is supposedly nourishing if eaten in moderation."
My Jack in the pulpits are coming up slowly. The Solomon Seals are coming up and the Falso Solomon Seals are starting to peek up, too. The pussy toes are stretching out in all directions. I can't wait until they fill in more. I just rescued them last year.
I have bloodroot sprouting as well as trout lilies and dutchman's breetches, but still no trillium, jacks, or mayapple. I'm in a hollow, so things are usually a couple of weeks behind the rest of the county.
The one plant that I don't have that I wish I did is trout lilies. I would love to trade for some if anyone has extras. Just let me know what you'd like. I do have squirrel corn, too.
Hi pins,
I have lots, and will happily 'attempt' to share. The wierd little bulbs (pea or bean sized) work their way so deep in the ground (6-8") by the time they're blooming sized, that it's been hard for me to follow the thread like stem to the bulb without breaking it. The immature ones are'nt as deep yet and are easier to move, but it takes a year or 2 for them to bloom. The babies make a carpet of mottled leaves that are beautiful without blooms though. I often dig some accidentally in the garden, so I can be putting those aside where they can be easily found as they go dormant. By the way, the hellebore seedlings you sent me last spring are very happy and have grown faster than any others I have so far :)
Neal
Yes they say that trout lillies commit suicide they bury themselves so deep.....we have them down by the lake and almost never see a bloom...just the leaves.
Thanks for letting me know about the hellebores. Its good to know they like their new home. They should bloom in the next year or two.
I appreciate your setting aside some trout lilies as the opportunity arises. Just let me know what you'd like in return.
Thanks Nancy for the shade garden sugestion,I was looking over the area in question,and I am becoming quite excited.Of course I will have to get rid of wild privet,and do a major cleane up,between my lovely neighbors,and my self.Seems that they have felt "justified",in tossing their debris in that area,not just plant material either.Looks like a board fence is in order too.The plants you mentioned will look fine among the rocks in that old road bed.
You can have all of these~~~~
OH my STARS!! That's an epidemic kind of like the wild geranium. HOly MOLY! Quite pretty though in the right place. LOL
I do see them taking over though LOL
kathy
I wish I had that under my domanant red maple.Would look so natural growing there.Mike
Keep in mind these come up and cover the area and then in late June they start looking yellow and wither and go away...until the next spring. this is not something that looks good all year (or even all summer).
We have them all over too, nothing that I had even thought of planting! I like this thread. I love lady slippers but I have only seen them in our woods. Maybe we could start a thread on wild flowers later. I would love to see everyone pictures.
We have a large woods behind our house and we hike thru it often in the Spring looking for birds and flowers.
Teresa
