Dear all, in the last years I have gathered quite a number of Crinum, more than 40 among species and hybrids and now many are reaching flowering size and this can be rather lengthy from seed for the pure species. The reason I was amazed from these plants was for the shape and colour combinations of the flowers. But now I am changing my mind a bit. These flowers, although nice and scented, are very short lasting and if I wasn't been up very late that night a couple of weeks ago, I would have missed Crinum amoenum flowering which lasted one night only. The others don't last than two days. Many other plants have short living flowers, one for all daylilies, but one can count on a very long time of flowering. I have clumps of Dietes bicolor in bloom continuously from April so far. Amaryllis belladonna and Amarcrium are in bloom from late July and they will still last. As crinums are often very cumbersome plants and personally I don't find them nice foliage plants apart asiaticum, I wonder if still make sense to grow them. Large C x powelli have already found a worthy burial in the compost pile, since I realized how beautiful were their flower ! If I wanted foliage plants, I had choosen many others. So, the question is: on which features crinum breeders focalize their efforts ? Hardiness? New colour combination? Reblooming habit? Anyone has never thought on more lasting flowers? Angelo Porcelli Italy