Spring Gardening

 My mom brought me this Trillium from her garden last year - and it seems to like where we planted it. 

 I'm told by Wikipedia that you must use a reputable garden store if you plan to buy Trillium and that in several states it is illegal to pick the flowers on public land and in parks - because it damages the plant and may kill it.  It is not illegal to have them in your garden, in fact it will help preserve these fascinating plants.

A Virginia blue bell in our back border.  I was told by a neighbor that before our house was flipped (several times) the front yard had a large patch of blue bells that were replaced by sod at some time during the transition.  She sounded still very upset about it.  I would have liked to see a blanket of blue bells - will have to help my few remaining ones along as I can. 

 You can learn all kinds of facts from Wikipedia!  For example, bumblebees can pollinate blue bells, but are not very good at it, as it forces them to hover for longer than they would like (they are too heavy to land on the flowers).  So the best pollinators are butterflies, because they are lighter and have longer tongues.  Poor bumblebees.