I’ve always loved these little plants. They look like a cross between an umbrella and a propeller. They have white flowers that people name ships after, and bear wonderfully perfect spherical fruits. What’s not to love?
But I never have any. They are all over the dump across the street and probably about a third of the roadside gutters in this county, but I’ve never gotten any in my woods.
Pink lady’s slippers positively litter this land, all down by the road, and up in front of the house, and in back too. I bet I couldn’t throw a bath towel off the back deck without covering five of the little suckers. Hell, they make it hard to walk in spots.
But never any mayapples.
I can faintly remember learning of these plants, and thinking they appeared especially for my birthday. What could I have been, four? Probably not five. Never mind that they appear about 6 weeks before my birthday. They’ve always warmed my heart.
Transplant some. That way you can see if there’s something wrong with your soil that they can’t grow in your yard, or if the wind just never blew the right way to bring their seeds to your yard.
There used to be May Apples at my Boy Scout camp. The fruit looks enticing (and WAY too big for the tiny plant it’s on), but I note that the rest of the plant is highly toxic, and I’d heard that the fruit itself can be poisonous when not ripe. And nobody seemed sure of when it was ripe, we never ate it:
Never tried transplanting it, so I have no idea how well that would work. Here’s info about buying and growing it, though:
Yeah - we transplanted some years ago to go with our trillium, trout lilly, and bloodroot. They transplanted easily and have thrived, tho they have spread less than the trillium or trout lily.
How do you transplant them? Some have one umbrella, and some have two with the flower and fruit between them - does it matter which? Is there a best time to do it? Can you plant the fruits or get seeds out of the fruits and plant those?
I’d pick one that isn’t blooming. Dig it and a largish circle of dirt around it out and move it to the pre-dug hole you have planned for it. Tamp dirt down. Water well. Baby for about one week. Keep an eye on it if drought or deluge should occur over the summer.
Be sure to plant it in similar conditions that you get it from. If it’s in light shade, plant it in light shade etc. Early spring is the best time, unless you happen to have seed or know the plant is a bulb. I say go for it.
I wouldn’t fertilize it–most wild flowers do well au naturale. Good luck. The sooner you do this, the better. I assume your in the south-it’s only gonna get hotter.