The woodland-floor jewels — trillium, bloodroot, mayapple — that make a forest garden feel genuinely ancient and wild. The soul of the thing.
Undisturbed, humus-rich pockets along the path that you won't dig later.
Slow to establish and long-lived. They vanish by mid-summer — interplant with ferns to cover the gap.
CRITICAL: buy only nursery-propagated stock — never wild-dug. Wild collection is destroying native populations.
Reputable native nurseries that propagate (ask directly); GNPS sales.
Read more at NC State Extension →