Crinum 'Super Ellen' × 'Mrs. James Hendry'
Jay Yourch (Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:57:21 PDT)

Hi all,

I am pleased to announce a new Crinum hybrid I made in 2005 which is flowering for
the first time this week. The seed parent was 'Super Ellen' (barely seed fertile)
and the pollen parent was 'Mrs. James Hendry' (seed sterile). Both are among my
favorite Crinums, so I was very happy to get one seed from multiple attempts. The
seed was collected in late summer 2005 and sent to Alani Davis in Tallahassee,
Florida. Because Alani has a greenhouse and a longer growing season we thought we
might be able to have it mature and flower more rapidly there.

Alani gave it a good location in his garden and each spring he sent me "baby
pictures" of the leaves so I could watch it develop. This year he said it finally
looked big enough to bloom and a scape appeared about a week ago. It got the great
fragrance of 'Mrs. James Hendry', which I'm very happy about, and also has very
thick and waxy petals. We suspected this would help with the durability of the
flowers and it was tested immediately with 104F degree (40C) temperatures yesterday,
performing well despite these extreme conditions. The bulb will remain with Alani
for further evaluation over the next season or two and if it continues to perform
well I will name it. I am hoping it offsets soon so I can have one growing in my
garden! Here's a link if you're interested in seeing the pictures.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

I'd also like to announce that with the addition of this new hybrid the PBS Wiki
Crinum Hybrids pages have reached a significant milestone. There are now 100 Crinum
hybrids described and photographed.

Finally, I'd like to thank Jim Waddick for his kind words to Alani and me yesterday.
It made my day, I'm sure Alani appreciated it too.

Regards,

Jay Yourch
Raleigh, NC (Zone 7b)