[pbs] Crinum season begins
J.E. Shields
jshields at indy.net
Tue May 2 11:51:16 EDT 2006
Hi,
Surprisingly, Crinum season has also begun here in central Indiana! One
plant of C. bulbispermum, planted in the ground right outside the
greenhouse, is in bloom. This is at least a month earlier than I recall in
the past. There are some volunteer seedlings of crinums coming up in this
same bed! I never thought a Crinum could seed around in central
Indiana! I have lost x-powellii in this same bed, close to one of the
small greenhouses (#2, to be exact). A Zantedeschia 'Green Goddess' is
surviving in the ground outdoors at the south end of greenhouse #2, and
nearby is a plant of Hymenocallis liriosme, coming up after its 2nd or 3rd
winter in the ground there.
Survival continues to be very good for most of my crinums. I have not
checked the plants I gave to the Indianapolis Zoo yet, in the center of
downtown Indianapolis; but here in the outer suburbs of Indianapolis, I
have not noticed any major losses. One large Crinum variabile had the
center bulb die, but numerous offsets survive. One large plant of C.
[bulbispermum X lugardiae] in the same outdoor bed looked bad, but I think
it is surviving. The other 6 to 10 large plants of these two varieties
seem to still be there and to be perfectly healthy.
Numerous 2-yr old seedlings of C. variabile were lined out last summer,
outdoors in the ground near GH #4, and most seem to have come back.
The C. variabile and the C. [bulbispermum X lugardiae] are outside the
south end of the large greenhouse (#4), ca. 10 to 15 ft. away from
it. They undoubtedly get some leakage of heat from GH #4 in the
winter. However, this last autumn, we did not add any extra mulch to the
thin layer we had down for weed control.
I'm planning to try Crinum plantings farther away from buildings this
summer, if we get the time. We'll try a couple hybrids of bulbispermum and
some seedlings of C. bulbispermum. I had three bulbs from about 20
seedlings of [bulbispermum X macowanii] that survived outdoors in the
ground. The three survivors were transferred to 5-gal. pots and will be
used for breeding. I may risk a couple large seedlings of a macowanii X
macowanii cross there. I have 2-yr old [bulbispermum X graminicola] to
try, too -- if we get the time.
Best regards,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana (USA)
At 10:23 AM 5/2/2006 -0400, you wrote:
>Crinum season has begun in North Carolina with 'Alamo Village'
>and 'Mrs. James Hendry' blooming now. The x powellii and
>x herbertii types should be along soon.
>...........
*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA
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