Get Acquainted With Crinums

The Charm of Crinums

It is true that many of the crinums indeed require more room than the ordinary amaryllis bulb or geranium plant, but so do the eremurus and Lilium giganteum, for instance, and at the same time, they are highly regarded as garden plants.

Pin

Key Takeaways:

• Crinums are garden plants requiring more room but providing rewarding aesthetics; not all are suitable for northern greenhouses or gardens.
• Crinum bulbispermum, a hardy species from South Africa, is foundational to many collections; it flourishes with good loam and manure and does well in well-drained soil.
• C. bulbispermum crossbreeds well with C. moorei, creating modern hybrids such as C. powellii; these hybrids exhibit various shades of pink and are the basis for growing better crinums.
• American varieties like the Cecil Houdyshel and Louis Bosanquet hybrids have been successful; they boast enhanced vigor, size, and coloring, blooming multiple times a season.
• Growing crinums from seeds or small sizes offers a cost-effective way for enthusiasts to gain experience in crinum culture.

Amaryllis Cultivation: A Rewarding Challenge

Crinums are among the most exciting and rewarding amaryllis to grow. However, not all crinums are suitable for culture in Northern greenhouses or gardens.

The Majesty of the “Milk and Wine Lily”

Some natural species are a major or minor repetition of the “Milk and Wine Lily” theme, purple or rose stripes on a white background.

The Beauty of Modern Hybrids

They are infrequent bloomers, but in the modern race of hybrids descended from Crinum bulbispermum (formerly known as C. longifolium or C. capense), there is a variety of free-flowering types with handsome foliage, and beautiful umbels of flowers ranging from pure white to deep wine rose.

A Look at the Hardiest Species

Crinum bulbispermum is an old bulb from South Africa, the hardiest species known, and the fundamental crinum in every collection for garden planting. 

It has bluish-green foliage, which may be several feet long on mature plants. It is reputedly hardy north to the New York City area with sonic protection in Winter. Its hybrids, mainly of the C. powellii group, are almost as cold-resisting.

The Flourishing of Crinum bulbispermum

In the lower South, C. bulbispermum produces blooms four or five times during spring, beginning in February.

However, the flowering period occurs later in the year in more northern regions. The floral stems can reach 2′ to 3′ feet, and well-developed specimens may boast 10 to 11 or more flowers.

The individual blooms are delicately trumpet-shaped with segments about four inches long, white with more or less red striping or red flush on the exterior. It requires good, rich loam and likes a dressing of manure occasionally. 

It does better on well-drained soil than in heavy wet places, although many crinum-like conditions are almost aquatic.

The Elegance of Long-Necked Bulbs

C. bulbispermum makes numerous offsets and seeds well. It has an affinity for crinum moorei, a native of southern Natal, with large roundish bulbs and long, heavy tapering necks. This is reported hardy like so many warm climate things “in the south of England under a south wall.” 

C. bulbispermum can likely be cultivated in more distant regions along the Atlantic coast is protected. However, deep planting is necessary to prevent cold damage to the neck. 

Nevertheless, the plant can be successfully grown in Florida with the bulb nearly resting on the soil’s surface.

The Splendor of C. Moorei

C. moorei is a highly elegant and graceful crinum featuring delicate pink blossoms and vivid green leaves that spread in a circular arrangement at the top of its elongated neck.

This deciduous plant sheds its leaves in the far south during the fall. It blooms in the summer and thrives in nutrient-rich soil with ample moisture.

The campanulate flowers are arranged in sizable umbels, accompanied by extended pedicels and tubes.

The Excitement of New Hybrids

Crossed with C. bulbispermum, C. moorei has produced a delightful series of modern hybrids which are the primary basis of the present argument in favor of growing more and better crinums. 

The first of these hybrids is C. powellii, known in a light pink form, a pure white form (album), and a wine-red type called rubrum. This last is less common than the others. 

In Holland, there are offered C. powellii var. Harlemense and C. powelli var. Krelagei is now available in the American trade. They are charming in foliage and the varying shades of their luscious pink coloring.

Exploring American Varieties

America has produced the choice “Cecil Houdyshel” hybrid crinum, definitely of the C. powellii type, but a vast improvement in vigor, size of the umbel, and rich coloring over the older pink parent.

It was created some years ago by a California bulb specialist of the same name.

The Remarkable “Cecil Houdyshel” and “Louis Bosanquet”

In Florida, the lovely hybrid Louis Bosanquet, a very light pink, very early type, is a notable desideratum; bulbs of this interesting variety have been known to produce six or seven bloom scopes in a single season, starting in the first warm days of January. 

Somewhat scarce in recent years, it was a posthumous introduction of the English plantsman, Louis Percival Bosanquet, who lived at Fruitland Park, Lake County, Fla., for many years. 

Bosanquet also is noted for his wine-rose hybrid Ellen Bosanquet, which he named for his wife and one of the outstanding crinums of the present century. However, with Cecil Houdyshel it is probably the most remarkable of this group originated in America.

Ellen Bosanquet is a later mid-season blooming bulb, distinct from the C. powellii type and more like C. zeylanicum, the common “Milk and Wine Lily” of central Florida gardens in the form of growth, and doubtless, it had that species as one of its parents. 

It has large umbels of campanulate flowers of a rich burgundy shade.

Discover the Showy White-flowering Kind

C. powellii album is one of the most spectacular white-flowering bulbs in the world. It can produce half a dozen scapes from a large bulb in a season, and in Florida, it is at its peak around Easter time.

It can virtually replace the Easter lily in gardens and for church decorations at that time.

The C. powellii varieties are not unduly large and can be grown in 8- to 10-inch pots for the most part until they form giant chimps. Then, in the north, they can be planted in the spring garden when warm weather arrives or grown as “sentinel” specimens in large pots or small tubs. 

Some larger species, notably C. amabile, and asiaticum, are too big for house plants in their mature stages unless there is plenty of room in the cellar but are being grown in large pots in the north.

The Joy of Growing Bulbs From Seed

The patient flower lover who likes to grow things can gain interesting experience in crinum culture at little cost by growing in small sizes, offsets of various kinds, and raising them from seed. 

C. asiaticum, from the tropical Pacific area, seeds freely and has been known to flower in two or three years from seed under glass with special treatment. 

This is one of the largest bulbs at maturity, with a leek-like base up to eight inches in diameter and giant leaves up to 4′ or 5′ feet long and 6″ inches broad. It is an important landscape plant in Florida.

The hybrid J. C. Harvey, with attractive umbels of medium pink on long-necked bulbs, which indicate their C. moorei ancestry, is an older American hybrid still popular. It originated in the Los Angeles area by a veteran horticulturist in the late 10th century. 

The late Fred Howard’s Amarcrinum howardi, more properly known in the literature as Crinodonna corsi, a hi-generic hybrid between Crinum moorei and the Cape belladonna, Brunsvigia rosea, is a lovely thing, hardy into Virginia with some protection and having large umbels of the most rarelïscented, unusual, pink flowers in late Summer. 

The perfume and coloring are like those of Cape Belladonna.

Unveiling Lesser Known Species

Other popular crinum species worth trying in any collection are:

• C. scabrum, with wide-open, amaryllis-like flowers, white and striped scarlet
• C. giganteum, a rare pure-white African species, having wide-open tulip-like flowers
• C. americanum, a sturdy and half-hardy, stoloniferous kind with white, star-like flowers
• C. kunthianum
• C.fimbriata lum 
• C. campanulatum
• C. rubescens
• C. sanderianum
• C. kirki
• All “Milk and Wine Lily” types, with rose-purple stripe variations on white trumpets. 

Other less common hybrid crinums sometimes found in American catalogs are:

• Empress of India
• Virginia Lee
• White Queen
• Burbanki
• Peachblow
• Mrs. Sophie Nehrling
• WormleyBury

Mastering Pot Culture

Most crinum bulbs reach blooming size when three inches in diameter and can be managed in an eight-inch pot. However, as they grow larger, up to six inches in diameter or more, a shift to larger container sizes may be necessary every two or three years. 

They will grow well in the same pot for several seasons undisturbed if given a new top dressing annually and watered with a liquid fertilizer every month. 

Most of the bulb is left out of the soil in pot culture. In the garden, unless in the lower south or similar warm climates, the bulbs should be planted deeply to prevent frost injury to its vital tissues.

In cold climates, the tender species are best dug in the Full and stored like dahlia tubers in the Winter.

44659 by Wyndham Hayward