Variegated Crinum

johngrimshaw@tiscali.co.uk johngrimshaw@tiscali.co.uk
Mon, 11 Jul 2005 08:31:18 PDT
There is a variegated Crinum moorei in the conservatory at Kirstenbosch BG,
Cape Town, under the care of Graham Duncan. I will e-mail him & ask what its
origin is.

E.A. Bowles, in 'My Garden in Autumn and Winter' (1915) in discussing C.
moorei, records: 'Mr Elwes has kindly given me a plant of of his variety
with magnificently variegated foliage, a seedling of the original plant,
which doubles its interest in showing that the variegation can be
inherited.' A discourse on the heritability of variegation follows, but
nothing more about the Crinum.

When visiting Myddelton House (Bowles' home) earlier in the year I enquired
specifically about the variegated Crinum, but nothing was known about it.
Needless to say there is nothing here at Colesbourne, the only Crinum
survivor being a few very scrappy bits of C. xpowellii and they may not have
been Elwes originals.

Some years ago, on the IBS forum, there was a discussion about variegation
etc in C. moorei and several of us reported that achlorophyllous plants had
arisen from seed, or intermediates with reduced chlorophyll. I still have
one of these, but although pallid it couldn't really be called variegated
'without some risk of terminological inexactitude' (to quote Winston
Churchill).

John Grimshaw



Dr John M. Grimshaw
Garden Manager, Colesbourne Gardens

Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Nr Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL53 9NP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Waddick" <jwaddick@kc.rr.com>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 2:42 PM
Subject: [pbs] Was BX 94 - Variegated Crinum


> >3. Small bulbs of Crinum cv. "Parent variegated, likes shade."
>
> Dear All;
> I noticed this listed on the current BX and assumed it is a
> tender cv such as the variegated C. asiaticum types. It reminded me
> of my curiosity about a variegated AND hardy Crinum. Does anyone know
> or grow any variegated foliage C. x powellii or C. bulbispermum or
> any named cultivar of a crinum able to survive outdoors in Zone 6
> with well variegated foliage including purple shades?
>
> Thanks Jim W.
> -- 
> Dr. James W. Waddick
>


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