Hardy Crinums. Was: Whats blooming in New York :) (Crinum x powellii)
J.E. Shields (Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:05:58 PDT)

My Crinum x-powellii roseum form are still here, but Jim McK is right about
a strong back to excavate a clump out of the ground. I leave that to my
hired staff, now all gone off to school again for the winter.

As Ellen mentions, x-powellii album is a much nicer garden plant than
x-powellii roseum.

Nicer than any of the x-powellii as garden plants are Crinum bulbispermum
and C. variabile. Both are hardy here once the bulbs reach about 2 inches
in diameter. Plant them at least 8 inches deep and mulch heavily the first
couple of winters. After that, they'll do just fine in USDA zone 5 and
warmer. I have a few volunteer seedlings of some crinum coming up in one
bed out in the open. I assume they are C. bulbispermum; this seems to
violate my 2-inch rule.

Following the 2-inch rule, other hardy crinums are C. [bulbispermum x
lugardiae] and [variabile x bulbispermum]. Some C. [macowanii x
bulbispermum] are hardy here in the ground, but only about 1 out of three
plants in the cross I tested a few years ago. Some [bulbispermum x
graminicola] also survived outdoors in the ground for a couple of winters
before I turned chicken and potted them up again. They still have not bloomed.

(Note: I may have the pollen parents and the seed parents reversed in some
of those crosses I listed.)

Jim Shields
in beautiful, mild Westfield Indiana,
where the heat is soon going to ratchet rapidly back up above 90F/32C

At 12:25 PM 8/28/2010 -0400, you wrote:

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA