My Red Trillium #ShadowshotSunday

For #ShadowshotSunday, brought to us by Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures, I take you to my back yard where I've had a red trillium for years.  We purchased this as a young plant at the annual Ithaca, New York Plant sale.  

It is up against a brunnera plant (the blue flowers)- the brunnera are trying to take over our shady back yard, in fact.

Here's a better look at it.  It appears in early spring and at some point the red flower appears.  I love its variegated leaves - that is why I purchased this particular variety.  I am a sucker (technical term) for plants with variegated leaves.  After blooming, the plant disappears (by mid summer if not earlier) until the following spring.

And yes, there is one flower.  It will produce one seed, which is carried by ants to a nearby piece of dirt.  Right now I have this original plant and two babies.  One baby has a tiny flower.

We were warned by the grower who sold this plant to us that it would take years to bloom and indeed it did.   Not only that, when the bud appeared, it took two or three years for the flower to look like it was opening.  In fact, the flower has never opened all the way.

I wonder if it ever will. Maybe the plant isn't happy because it isn't in a forest.  It does get a lot of sun until the trees grow their leaves, which they now have. You can learn more about trilliums here.

Finally,here is one of our brunneras.

Will you come out of the shadows and join up with Lisa's #ShadowshotSunday linky on her website?  We'd love to have you.