Crinum Lilies

Crinum Scabrum bud

A garden staple of mine for the last few years has been the crinum lily.  It has been crinum time in the garden lately.  Blooms have been popping up in the corner garden.

 The crinum ("cry-num" I only just realized had been mispronouncing this for years) is related to the amaryllis, but is rarely seen in your typical garden center.  It is the quintessential pass along plant.  You almost have to be chummy with an old gardener in order to get some.  I received mine from a friend of my mother who cleans them out of her beds from time to time. The huge bulbs sat in the corner for months until they started to sprout leaves.  I planted them not having a clue what they might be and soon they bloomed.  Since then I've been pretty enamored with the crinum lily. 

The Crinum Scabrum bloom always reminds me of peppermint.

Crinums in the Corner Garden

The crinum scabrum comes first, their red striped white blooms opening up around mid to late May.  I got these from a master gardening sale with only "White crinum with red stripe" on the tag.  I had to figure out the rest on my own.  The next to bloom are the original crinums I got from my Mother's friend:

I still don't know the type, but they seem to be very common in older neighborhoods around town.  They do very well with our sometimes drought/sometimes flood weather, and have been known to outline long gone homesteads, far out lasting the homes they were meant to adorn.  

Crinums by the shed this morning.

A cluster of crinum blooms.

Most crinum originated in Africa and it is thought that many were brought over during the slave trade.  While I don't know if this is true, I kind of like the humble origin story of families passing these plants down from generation to generation in the South. 

The crinum lily seems to be the Miracle Whip of the plant world:  you either love them or hate them.  While not in bloom the plants can be ungainly and their huge bulbs can be difficult to transplant.  But I like them, and I hope this post gave you something to like as well.  If you are interested in learning more, here are some sites I recommend:

The Pacific Bulb Society

Crinums in East Texas

Amaryllids in Cultivation

The Best Thing You Can Put In Your Garden

Somewhere along the way I once read "The best thing you can put in your garden is you." Any good gardener knows the biggest part of gardening is being in the garden. Picking weeds, looking for bugs, dead-heading, whatever. Fortunately, I've put a lot of me in the garden in the last few weeks. I've got a ton summer cuttings started in the front yard, the butterfly and shed gardens are picking up and I planted a little itty-bitty veggie garden in the corner garden where I finally gave up on some of my gingers growing this year. This concept applies with a blog, too. I haven't put too much of myself here lately. Who wants to be stuck behind computer when there is a garden to garden? I did take pictures in the last few weeks of some of the best blooms. Hope this will hold you over until I get some legitimate update posts done. Enjoy!

I think this daylily was called 'purple grape'. I call it yummy!

African Iris

African Iris

Daylily - 'Clara'

One of the reasons I LOVE coleus is its diversity. On the right is one from the Aurora series. There was no name in the nursery for the one on the left, so it is now know by me as 'Big-honkin' Coleus.

Crinum Scabrum

Crinum Scabrum

Red Canna

Yellow Walking Iris

Hidden Ginger

'Black and Blue' Salvia and 'Happy Returns' Daylily

In lieu of anything exciting to say about my garden, I turn instead to the wisdom of my 2008 calendar:

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower;

There is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

- Matsuo Basho

Meet Mr. Nestor White

Normally, eBay purchases are a pretty anonymous affair. You know a person's email, and typically their address. You might be able to deduce that a person represents a store or nursery or if they are private individuals selling their stuff. That's about it. But then I ordered from Mr. Nestor White.

I was very pleased with the purchase itself. Not only did I receive the crinum bulbs I was promised, but he threw in a bonus bulb. In the package was also a CD, and here I was introduced Mr. White. The CD had scans of new paper articles he and his garden was featured in. He's a home gardener in Orange Park, FL near Jacksonville. His garden features about 40,000 plants, with his passion (and here is where my heart flutters a bit . . .) being his 4,000 crinum bulbs. The CD not only included pictures of almost all of his 250 varieties of crinum and other plants, but pictures of his family and amazing jam packed home garden. With his permission, I just had to post about it. Now if he would only start a blog . . . I'd be in heaven!

The above picture is a nice example of using crinum in a front border.

The pathway to the backyard has crinum and cannas, along with a bunch of other stuff.

How gorgeous is that giant crinum?

What I love about his garden is that it is not a pristine magazine garden. There are things out of place, scattered about and most definitely lived in. But there is no doubt that every square inch of the place jammed with the most interesting things. I know I could spend hours there.

Here's what I've bought from Mr. White. These are his pictures, not mine. My plants are still babies and will take a few years to bloom:

Two Crinum Americanum bulbs

The Hannibal's Dwarf was a bonus plant. I'd like to get more of these.

I bought several of these small Digweedii 'Nassau' bulbs.

JC Harvey was the bonus.

All of my purchases are still going very strong and I am quite happy. Mr. White has a very good rating as well, so I'm not the only one who feels this way. If you are shopping eBay for crinums, look for the seller Bulbsnmore. You'll be very pleased.

Kanapaha

Yesterday I went to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, one of the nicest things ever to come out of Gainesville. (Sorry Gators, as a die-hard Nole, I have to poke fun.) It was lovely morning, even as the threat of a nasty thunderstorm loomed. I've been to Kanapaha several times before, but often later in the year, when much of the foliage has faded. It was nice to come in
June and see so much in its peak.

Orange Cannas and White Cleome. While all of the variety names are very clearly noted on all of these plants, I was not so diligent in recording them- Sorry! Cleome has just come into my radar this and I've been noticing them everywhere. I really like this combo, and think I'll be trying it in the garden next season.

We had a tour guide - her name is Willow. Willow followed us everywhere, showing each of the gardens, lagging behind, then catching up with us through a secret short cut only she knew. She was so charming, and really took a shine to my daughter.

This is the herb garden. Willow is patiently waiting for us to catch up. This garden in particular has looked a bit lack luster in previous years, but today was gorgeous. It is split into medical herbs and scented herbs. Everything is labeled very clearly and has detailed info on how each plant is used. It would be easy to spend hours in this garden.
I love this picture of an anchor in the middle of the jungle for no apparent reason. It totally screams 'Lost' to me.


Kanapaha is known for its bamboo garden.


Namaste, Buddha-Man.



More Cleome with Canna. I really do like this combo.


Kanapaha does however have a serious bug problem.




Now, regular readers must know how happy this little sign makes me. How did I miss this before? I guess I only really discovered crinum flowers last summer, and when I have visited the gardens in the fall, the show was not as spectacular as it is now.
This area is probably week from really going crazy.



This Crinum Augustum 'Queen Emma' is a real stunner.


Note: If you go to Kanapaha, bring bug spray. We forgot it, and although they typically keep a supply at the entrance desk, but they ran out yesterday.

Not Nice to Make a Girl Wait . . .

It kills me waiting for these crinum to bloom. I have neighbors whose plants have been blooming for a week. Aaaarrrggghhh! I've been meaning forever now to take a walk and snap pics of some of the plants in my neighborhood. I'll have to work on that - and actually meet some of my neighbors!
This garden "feels" better than it looks. That's the only way I can describe it. I enjoy being in it. I guess I don't notice the dead grass so much. It hasn't recovered from two months with no rain. When I did water, I didn't waste it on the grass.

Great Expectations

The propagation station is rolling and I am taking cuttings of everything. Above are some yucca seedlings - thanks Vanillalotus! Below makes me very happy - it is a new crinum bud!

Check out what was going on in the garden on June 18th last year!

Good Morning, Crinum!

My best guess is that this is a Crinum 'Stars and Stripes' C. × digweedii (C. erubescens × C. scabrum). If anyone out there who knows more about these plants can ID it, I would greatly appreciate it!

Update on the Crinum

I love this plant so much I want to jump on Oprah's couch.

It is a Gardening-poloza in here!

I have three days off - in a row - so I have a lot of stuff I want to accomplish:

1. Start a new circular bed in the corner garden
2. Get landscaping timbers for the corner garden
3. Remove the other bananas (finally)
4. Weed the front garden bed
5. Fertilize with fish emulsion
6. Laundry (I was told I need to make some time for that.)
7. Watch my crinum (above) bloom

I Love This Time of Year

I love this time of year! I don't feel totally depressed every time go out to the garden. The butterfly garden is looking pretty decent right now. The only flaw (and isn't there always one?) is the empty trellis where the passion vine just isn't taking off. The Stargazer lilies are beautiful and the pink guara by the bird bath have gotten very tall and spread nicely. But nothing compares to finding a little surprise like this one:
One of my Crinums, one of the ones I was pretty sure I killed, HAS A BUD!! I'm SO excited I'M USING CAPS!!!! (You'll be seeing more of this plant in the near future.)