Culture
Easily grown in deep, organically rich, humusy, moist but well-drained soils in part shade to full shade. Needs consistent moisture. Apply leaf mulch in fall each year. Rhizomatous plant that can be slow and difficult to propagate from seed. Spreads very gradually if left undisturbed to form clumps.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Trillium cuneatum, commonly known as wood lily or sweet Betsy, is the largest and most vigorous of the sessile trilliums that are native to the eastern U. S. It is typically found in rich woods from Kentucky to North Carolina south to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Each plant in the genus Trillium features three leaf-like bracts in a terminal whorl subtending a solitary flower which is either peduncled (on a stalk) or sessile (stalk absent). Trillium cuneatum is a sessile form. From an underground rhizome, a stout, unbranched, naked stem (technically an extension of the rhizome rather than a true stem) rises in spring to 12-18" tall topped by an apical whorl of three prominently-veined, ovate to egg-shaped, leaf-like bracts (typically to 3-7" long). Each bract is green, mottled with irregular gray-green blotches. From the center of whorl of bracts emerges a single sessile three-petaled maroon flower during the period of late March-early May. Each flower has three erect, ovate, maroon petals (to 2-3” long) subtended by three smaller green sepals. Flower color is variable, sometimes appearing yellowish bronze or reddish-green. Flowers often have a sweet but faint fragrance (some say reminiscent of bananas), hence the common name of sweet Betsy. Flowers give way to berry-like capsules. Seeds are disbursed by ants. Foliage will usually die to the ground by late summer, particularly if soils are allowed to dry.
Genus name means "triple lily", in reference to how all the main parts of the plant occur in threes. Linnaeus originally placed this genus in the Liliaceae family.
Specific epithet comes from the Latin word cuneatus meaning wedge shaped) in probable reference to the shape of the leaf base.
Problems
Watch for slugs and snails. Potential disease problems include leaf spot, smut and rust. This flower does not transplant well.
Uses
Woodland gardens and moist shady borders. Shady areas of rock gardens. Native plant gardens.