Bulbs: Crinum Lily

I know these are huge bulbs. I dug some up at my aunts house in NC last summer and thought they were Amaryllis. So I potted them as such and they have not bloomed. Do they need to be planted in the ground?? I have about ten of these and they are growing but I kept expecting buds to come up from the top instead of from the side...I gave one to my friend and hers is planted in the ground and has already bloomed this spring. Is ther any hope for blooms this year?????

i have not grown them myself, i hope this url will help understand more about the plant ... http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/bulbs-summer/crinum.html

i have heard you can grow them in pots, we don't here cause they are perennial here. also, they need to be planted where most of the neck is exposed. i have had several kinds given to me in the last couple of years, and if the bulbs are big and happy enough they have bloomed being in the ground for just a few months. if the necks are bulbs are buried too deep it takes more time (year or more). if hers have bloomed you have probably missed your bloom cycle for this year, different ones bloom at different times.

milk and wine crinums love to be planted very deep. and they will pull theirselves deeper if not deep enough. Mine are over a foot, maybe 15" to bottom of bulb. not including the roots. which crinum are they?

i have some light pink crinums, blooming now, huge bulbs weight 7-10 pounds. guy at the nursery told me how to plant. the bigger bulbs bloomed 2-3 months after i planted them, the smaller ones that i separated from the huge ones haven't bloomed yet. my milk and honey came in a pot, planted them same level and they bloomed the next year,their bulbs are no where near as big as my other crinums. i have a fragrant white i plantedlast summer bloomed in april when dee was here. very fragrant, very tall stalks. i put in some deep pink ones, very common around here and blooming now, last summer but mine haven't bloomed, don't think they have enough sun.
i have planted mine like the guy at the nursery said, with the neck out and the part where it gets fat barely sticking out, has worked for me.

arlene, there was a thread a while back about this. There are two schools of thought on the milk and wine, but I think all the other crinums are planted as you do. One says plant like you do, the other says plant like I do. Could be the difference in zone also, though that wasn't mentioned. This is my DH's favorite plant, family history in the bulbs, and I have to be very careful when I dig and divide that they bloom every year. We've had these for 15 years and so far so good:)
Vanessa, if they are milk and wine (it's in the database as that) you might try both ways to see what works in your zone.

tig, my flea market gardener friend says that bulbs will find their own place if not planted the right depth, but i guess that takes time. there is one we call a spider lily that looks a lot like a crinun, white blooms, but it has almost no bulb if i remember and tons of little roots right under the soil. i was really glad my crinums bloomed so fast, had read a newspaper article about it taking years for them to bloom if you moved them. the first ones i got bloomed in 2-3 months, i was so glad. a guy had 3 trash bags full at a yard sale (30 gallon size), gave me a bag was almost too heavy for me to pick up! of course i traded a lot of them before i ever planted them. my milk and honey already bloomed this year.

tiG, were u referring to this thread http://davesgarden.com/showthread/287468.html ?

when u divide ur Crimiums, pls. remember me.

no MV, this is an older thread, http://davesgarden.com/showthread/227467.html but somewhere on here we talked last year about the depth thing. You'll find both depths, deep and shallow, recommended, just depends on which site you're at. I'll gladly share these bulbs, they're still blooming, but when they go dormant. They are very very heavy, so I'll try to take a few of the smaller (but not much:) bulbs that we moved this spring. We still have too many!

thanks tiG :). would be glad to pay for postage.

best rule of thumb is... the bigger the bulb will be during planting time is to plant deeper and vise versa if the bulb is small. common sense do play a lot when it comes to planting.

the test is to catch the crinums blooming and see how much neck is sticking out. i have read posts before where crinums took years to bloom, guessing they were planted too deep. that neck is supposed to be out of the soil, according to mine anyway.

All of mine bloom just fine and their necks are way out of the ground, some of the huge ones only have the roots in the soil.. These are very beautuful plants.. I have light pink, dark pink and Milk & Wine, all of which were my grandmothers, and are all very old.
Larkie

Larkie, i've been trying to catch you to see if you have a recipe for baked beans made with pineapple and sausage..will post on recipe forum asking you!
bet those are beautiful, it's nice to have plants from moms and grandmoms.... (i have 3 of those too plus white)

i've been digging mine for the past 2 years. I noticed a bloom of one in an odd place this a.m..it was a crinum, completely forgotten (wether it fell out of the pot or was used as a baseball by the kids) it was laying on its SIDE!! the roots grew towards the ground, the foliage towards the sky and sent out the most pathetic bloom imaginable.
i find them to be my easiest bulb to grow
jen