Anyone who has ever viewed a hillside of trilliums quickly realizes that one plant just doesn't do it.
On the difficulty of buying native plants: although I tell myself that nobody will miss a shovelful, or that a subdivision will definitely be built right over those trout lilies in fifteen years, my conscience continues to win, and stewardship has prevailed over greed. But whenever and wherever I try to purchase those trout lilies, reality hits. Anyone who has ever viewed a hillside of trilliums quickly realizes that one plant just doesn't do it. I want to purchase at least ten, and I am willing to pay a reasonable price; however, the reality is that many of the native plants I desire simply are not there. While more and more gardeners search the Internet and buy from mail-order sources, the paucity of native plants to be found on retail shelves is more than frustrating; this commercial scarcity of many wildflowers provides yet one more temptation to return to that colony with my trusty shovel.