Jim, Many thanks for the kind words. I hoped I had something special when I collected the single seed from 'Super Ellen' late summer 2005. At the time I had no idea how stingy 'Super Ellen' is about making seeds, it's never given me another seed and I've hand pollinated nearly every flower my clump has made since then. When it flowered for the first time in 2009, in the care of Alani Davis, it was very clear immediately that the new hybrid had exceeded expectations. But then the waiting game began, and by 2011 Alani and I were able to distribute a small number of offsets. Jim was one of the recipients because his garden's location would test the new hybrid's cold tolerance. I am very pleased that 'Glory' has survived the cold winters, prospered and flowered in his garden, and that Jim enthusiastically agrees that 'Glory' really is something special. Hopefully Plant Delights can solve the numbers problem so that 'Glory' is no longer rare. Regards, Jay On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 7:35 PM, James Waddick <jwaddick@kc.rr.com> wrote: > Dear Friends, > > I believe there may be a new Queen of Crinums, if I may be so > bold. Two years ago, Jay Yourch send me a bulb of his new hybrid Crinum > 'Glory' to see if it had the hardiness of its parents. This seedling is > named for his mother and combines two very interesting parents. The pod > parent is 'Super Ellen' an amazing hardy Crinum of great beauty. 'Super > Ellen' has been hardy in my Zone 5/6 garden for years and regularly puts up > six foot tall stalks of deep rose/red flowers for weeks on end. The Pollen > parent 'Mrs James Hendry' did not prove hardy in my garden, but it has pure > white flowers with a lovely scent. > > The combined seedling first bloomed today. The flowers are > noticeably bigger than any other hardy Crinum I grow including "Super > Ellen': larger by as much as 20%. The stalks are shorter than 'Super Ellen' > at about 40 to 45 inches, but the diameter of the stalks is bigger > indicating a strong upright stalk and display. The plant is medium size for > a Crinum, very appropriate to many gardens. > > The flowers as I said are huge. I measure the unopened buds as 5 > inches long. The flowers are the richest pink imaginable with paler throat: > a very refined flower. There is a pleasant floral scent even from a short > distance away and it is not cloying. > > So in short and for a first bloom I am very impressed and look > forward to even better growth and bloom as it fully settles down. So thanks > to Jay and Congrats on his hybridization trials. > > I understand Tony Avent's Plant Delights Nursery is in the process > of propagating this hybrid. I hope he can figure out a way to get a lot of > them out to the growing public fast. Jay's pictures of this beauty can be > seen at > > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… > > All hail 'Glory'. Best Jim W. > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >