Swamp Culture and Hymenocallis

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:32:56 PDT
I don’t know about the Mexican alliance Hymenocallis. But I have seen H. liriosme growing in pots completely submerged in a small pond at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. And I saw a bunch of photos some years ago of a number of southeastern U.S. Hymenocallis species growing in large rectangular plastic containers that all were completely covered in water. I can’t remember who was growing them; maybe it was Alani Davis?

I grow H. acutifolia outside in the sun here in So. California and it just gets regular watering all summer and it flowers for me every year and multiplies fairly quickly. I’ve never had a problem with it and it doesn’t require any special care for me. I also have H. eucharidifolia flower for me every year. But I grow it in a very well draining medium that contains plenty of organic matter. I grow it in full bright shade in an unheated greenhouse on a metal screen placed on an open tub of water (that I treat for mosquito larva with some kind of bacteria). This is mostly to give it a warm very humid environment since So. Calif. air is so dry in the summertime. I have the other 4 species you mention, but none of them are apparently mature enough to flower yet. I only water them, regularly, during spring, summer, and fall along with my other summer growers, and keep them dry and protected from our winter rains during the cold winter months.

As for Mexico’s climates, there are so many besides the deserty or dry ones that are often depicted in movies and such. There are even some which you might almost think of as Eden-like: never too hot, never too cold, consistent rain at just the right times to keep everything green. And there are very typical warm humid tropical ones as well.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

> On Apr 7, 2016, at 1:52 PM, Rimmer deVries <rdevries@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Thank you -|<ipp and Dell for you replies and to others whom replied directly.
> 
> what i am most interested to know about si the summer wet culture of the Mexicana alliance Hymenocallis such as:
> Hymenocallis acutifolia
> Hymenocallis azteciana
> Hymenocallis durangoensis 
> Hymenocallis lehmilleri
> Hymenocallis phalangidis
> 
> i have visions of Mexico from the old westerns as very dry desert
> but reading TM Howard, i wonder if these were found at high elevations in damp areas 
> 
> i think Hymenocallis eucharidifolia likes more humusy soil, from my limited attempts, but please correct me.
> 

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