As I’ve remarked before, I had to wait a long, long time for
my crinums to bloom, particularly the one designated as ‘milk and wine’. For the uninitiated, crinums are wonderfully
tough, long-lived bulbs, not true lilies, but with beautiful flowers of many
shapes and shades. Looking back, it is obvious that my crinum
bulbs went through a lot: planted in
pots, hauled from one home to another, parked for keeping at our daughter’s
house during a winter, hauled again to our current home, but not planted out for
quite awhile until beds could be prepared.
And all of that in addition to some bitter winters and burning summers. And most bulbs, regardless of variety, take a
bit of time to settle in when they are moved, just like all other
perennials.
So! The white
crinums, crinum powellii album, have bloomed some, but they apparently prefer
mid-summer for blooming, and this having been the hottest summer for any state
in the country in recorded weather time, it was obviously more remarkable that
they bloomed at all. It’s just that
crinums enjoy (or suffer from) a very hyped reputation as the toughest bulbs
ever, and that just doesn’t seem to be always true. Labeling anything as ‘can’t fail’ is just
setting everyone up for disappointment.
Although the variety of crinum called Ellen Bonsanquet sure is amazing. Planted it last spring, it perked right up
and bloomed and bloomed last year, then this year there it went again. And a gorgeous rose color to boot.
Which brings me to the ‘milk and wine’ lilies. If you ever have the chance for one, take
it. The wait is worth it, and it might
not even be that much of a wait if you don’t have to haul it from pillar to
post as we did. The milk-and-wine
bloomed here awhile back, and I didn’t spot it in time to see it fresh and
pretty, just said ‘oh, hello’, because it was too **** hot. Ah, but the other day, we were outside moving
compost around, and I smelled this lovely fragrance and looked around and there
was a whole bouquet on one stem and it was perfuming the garden. So the next morning I cut the stem and
brought it in and being fresh it has these lovely streaks of rosy red along the
petals and the stamens match that color, and it stands in the vase a bouquet
all in itself. And … there’s another
stem coming up. Ahhhhh – it’s payback
time, at last. Now if I can just get
this other new crinum bulb to get going; it’s called Stars and Stripes and I
can hardly wait! Again!
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