Hi Jane- You can easily cut all the foliage of with out any harm. Most Crinum will even survive with no great harm if you cut off most of the neck portion of the bulb but this is usually excessive and unnecessary. I would not leave them in water though for very long. You can remove the offsets and let them dry out. I have accidentally found out many Crinum may survive for up to a year or more in a cool dry place so a few weeks will be not a problem. Back to you question though cutting all the foliage off won't hurt them and probably you will have a fresh flush of foliage on top that looks cleaner by the time of your sale/giveaway as long as you keep them free of frost. Alani Davis On Fri, Sep 18, 2015 at 1:41 PM, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote: > A friend has given me some large, bare-root plants of a Crinum (don't know > the species; the flowers are pink). I haven't grown Crinum before since > they don't flower well in our region, but would like to try them in my new > garden, which has some damp spots. > > Can someone please advise me how much I can trim these plants' foliage > without hurting them? (I have the roots in water today.) I'd like to remove > some of the small offsets and pot them up for our NARGS chapter's October > plant sale/giveaway, but I don't want the long, floppy leaves in the way. I > was thinking of leaving just 10 inches/25 cm of leaf attached to the bulb. > Is this acceptable? > > If there's anyone living near me who would like some, let me know > privately and I will share them. > > Jane McGary > Portland, Oregon, USA > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >