Bulbs: Crinum which one is this, and its growing culture?, 1 by raydio

raydio wrote:
Growing this kind of Crinum:

First off--give it lots of room and place where you can let it go 3-5 years undisturbed. This plant will make a huge clump and pull itself deeper in the soil. Digging them up is quite a chore and becomes even more so as the years go by. The plants flower much better (more scapes and more blossoms per scape) as they become well-established. You might be faced with an enormous clump in "the wrong place" and have to dig the whole thing up, so pick your spot well, or plan to dig and divide sooner than necessary.

Thinking further ahead--will you want to share bulbs later on? You would want to divide about every 5 years anyway and so you could then start some single-bulb clumps so that you don't have to dig up the whole huge clump and disrupt it's flowering. They usually bloom less well the year after a move, so always having an older clump to leave in the ground gives you the best show, and you can dig up the smaller separate bulbs or clumps to share.

If you have several bulbs to start with, you could plant one to let become well-established and undisturbed for as long as you care to, and dig and divide the smaller clumps for sharing.

They send out roots in all direction but up, and that can be 6 feet or more. So plan ahead on that too as far as other plants in the area and if they'll be in the way when (if) you dig the clump up.

For the best plants, give them lots of sun. They can take full summer sun down to part sun, but growth and flowering is better with good strong summer sun.

Plenty of compost added to the soil will really make them grow. They love an enriched clayey soil, but will take sandy loam to almost pure clay, if they have to, but again, we're talking about making them flourish, so add plenty of compost to clay or very sandy soils.

Water regularly and deeply in summer and feed liberally. Some people like to let them go through a dry period a few weeks after flowering, and then return them to plentiful watering--the result is often another flush of blooms. I have had plants flower in September and in the deep south, they are said to throw scapes year-round!

Watch out for "red blotch" on the foliage during spring rains when the temperature is low.

They're really an easy plant to grow and they're tough as iron, but the more you prepare a good spot, the more likely you'll have a traffic-stopping show later on.

A neighbor's planting of xherbertii: