Help on my Crinum Powellii, please!

I had this posted in the "Lily Forum", but Moby educated me and said it was not a lily, but in the Amaryllis family. So, I am copy/pasting it here for you good people to help me out! Thanks!!!

Sorry if this will be a bit long....

I was searching for some information on a Crinum Lily I bought at my HD (I work there) about 5 years ago. I potted it up in a 10" pot, and it grew, and grew-- endless leaves for about 3 years. NO flowers!
In the winter, I would take it inside and let it go dormant in my basement. The leaves would eventually shrivel up and i would pull them off.
In 2003, for the first ime ever, it grew one stalk from the base of the largest bulb, and flowered. It had never done it before--or since!

By last year, I realized that it had become EXTREMELY pot bound in the 10" pot it has been in all this time. SO! This Spring (2005), I decided to try and separate it. MY GOD!!!! That was the hardest job! Even though I washed all the soil off of the root mass, I still ended having to cut all the bulbs apart with a serious knife.

Anyway....I repotted each separated bulb in a new 6"-7" pot. I now have about 6 of these. The 2 largest clumps I planted in an 8" and a 10" pot. I also cut back all the leaves to the top of the elongated neck of the bulbs, hoping it would help them root in. Less stress and demands on the system!
All the pots are now outside in filtered sunlight. They are taking their time re-growing. Understandably....a recovery time for the plants. In the bigger pots, the leaves are SO long, they are breaking in half. I read in the PlantFiles that leaves on this Lily can grow 5-6 feet long! Yikes!!!! What do I need to do to make them flower?????

I have some doubts if I have planted these correctly from day #1. I was told to plant them, similar to Amaryllis, with the top of the bulb above the soil level. Now I have been reading, here and there, that they should have been planted about 4" below the soil level. Since mine have been half in--half out all these years, (or did they jusr grow that way???) and also now when I repotted them the same way, maybe that is why they have not bloomed for me. What do you all think?????

I will take some pictures of the leaves growing--and post it here. Do you have anything to contribute to this non-blooming problem of mine???? Maybe it is that the bulbs have NEVER been really underground. How deep are YOURS planted? Have they bloomed?????
I was told by a Horticulturist, when I bought them, that they are not hardy in my area. I am in zone 7a, in Baltimore.

Here's a picture of some of the pots they are in. From the original 10" pot, I got 6 divisions that are now in the 6" pots, and two bigger clumps that are now in the larger pots that are in the picture.

Do I HAVE to bring them inside and let them go dormant in the winter? Why are these different from any other lilies that are hardy and come back every year? Would they do better, and survive, if I planted them in the ground? Please advise!

When purchased, was this one bulb? That is, all of these are offsets?

Andi,

Yes. The original was only one bulb. I know this as I still have the packaging. Now, if I bought TWO packs of it, I don't remember....I think just one--as it cost $4--and it was about the size of a decent Daffodil bulb, or a small Amaryllis bulb.

SO, assuming the biggest one MAY be the original bulb, then yes, all these are offsets. It sure has been prolific at making offsets!
I am also wondering why they all have these very elongated necks????

Thanks for asking. Gita

I have a large bunch of pink crinums that were originally a couple of bulbs. Mine grow about 1/2 out of the ground. They are on the North side of a large elm and bloom every year. I think that they really want quite a bit of water. Mine have not had much water this year and they are blooming sparsely. Mine have multiplied mightily over the years.

George,

Thanks for your input! Really!!! BUT! You DO live in CA and can leave them out all year in the ground. I am in MD. This bringing stuff inside for the winter in pots (here) is NOT "natural" for them and also a pain in the butt! Pretty soon I will need to build an addition to the house just to house plants for the winter.....

All the 9 pots of off-shoots i repotted this Spring from the one, POOR Crinum in the 10" pot, are in filtered light, but--in pots, of course. I really should give them another year to see if separating them helped any. Maybe they WILL bloom! If not, then i am giving them away to whoever wants it. i just DO NOT have any room in my basement for more "going dormant" plants. This year I will also have 6 full-sized Brugs to find room for down there! YIKES!!!!

Besides all the above, I also have about 8 pots of Amaryllis to bring in. WHY, oh WHY do I do this to myself?????? We all DO know that plants and gardening is an addiction--that's why!!!

Thanks again! Gita

Gita, do you know what color yours are? If other than pink or white think of me.

George,

Mine are pink. I know that from the one time they bloomed and also that I have thee packaging.

Find "Brugie" on the Brugmansia forum (or any other one). We have been corresponding regularly. She has a dark red Crinum that she is not too interested with and plans on not keeping it. She lives in Iowa. She offered it to me, but i do not want any.

Drop her an e-mail........Gita

Gita, I'm by no means any expert, but in my area (7b/8a), we leave ours in the ground all year and they do fine. It seems they need to be at least 2-3 years old to bloom and the bulb needs to be a nice size. Although they seem to like to grow in tight clumps, I'm not sure those 1 gal pots are big enough anyway. I separated a "found" clump 2 years ago. Got about 30+ bulbs from it. The bigger bulbs (softball size) are blooming, and the ones that were golfball size haven't bloomed yet. I would plant the smaller ones close to your house to get heat this winter and mulch them and plant about 3 or so in a clump to give them company and you room. I'd also plant them so the top of the round bulb is about 1 inch or more underground...so that not so much of the brown neck is showing. They seem to like morning sun and afternoon shade. The ones I had planted with the neck high above ground just aren't doing as well as the one planted deeper.
All this is just from my personal experience. Your bulbs may react differently, and I know there are people on here with a lot more knowledge than me and they may tell you something different.
I wish you the best of luck! And I definitely know the problem of no more room for wintering plants in the house! lol

Yvonne

Yvonne,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I may try to plant some outside near the house, as you suggested. What do I have to loose? I have NINE pots of them.

Do the leaves grow as long and lanky if they are planted outside? I hate that about these! They fold over and break. There is NO distinct shape to the plant--like in an Amaryllis. Just a bunch of flopped over, unruly leaves!

In your opinion, is letting them go totally dormant in my basement good or not so good for them? They seem to still grow all these leaves, even when i do not water them at all! And so--the neck just gets longer and longer!

Thanks again! Gita

Mine didn't bloom this year either. I have plenty of leaves though. I've never tried to overwinter them in this zone.

Mine are not blooming. I got them in a trade last year and have lost that information. I wintered them over inside and then planted out in may -lots of foliage no blooms - is this a fall blooming bilb?? It is an ellen boosaunt (sorry for the spelling) LOL.

Mne are blooming right now, here in Southern California. Your results may vary.

Gita, I'd give them a rest and let them go dormant. They are a bulb. And most bulbs like that rest period.
Yep, mine get long, lanky leaves, but I plant shorter plants in front of them and give them room, so they give a good backdrop when not blooming. They seem to be a summer blooming plant. Mine are blooming now and George said his were blooming now....maybe yours will bloom in a few weeks!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Yvonne

Hi! I have lots of these. I am in LA and they are all planted outside in mostly sun. I've read alot on them and the one thing I remember is that old legend has it that NO ONE ever killed a crinum. I looked at your picture and noticed yours was planted more shallow than mine. I rescued about 25 last year from my dad's lawnmower and this year tranplanted around 2 trees (about 30) and now both beds around trees are full. I've had only one bloom this year. Good luck!

I have two types of crinum and both are in the ground. One gets probably 2-3 hours of sun and never gets watered by me because I simply don't rememer. It's surviving, but not much more. The other gets 4-5 hours of sun and water about once a month. It blooms if the weather is right (not blazing hot and dry as a bone). They are fairly tough plants here, but I think it's really important that they be in the ground. When I pull weeds in the bed that they are in I find their roots as much as 3 feet away. It would be very interesting to put some in the ground and see if they make it through the winter, but you need to do it probably in the spring so they will have a chance to become established before winter hits.

hi gita- haven't visited the bulb forum very often, but happened to see this thread, and wanted to encourage you to try to plant some outside- I've heard of some people even overwintering them in zone 5 with heavy mulching- the main advice i've heard about how to get them thu the winter in colder zones is to plant them deep- way deeper than the texas and ca. folks...6-8 inches of soil ontop of bulb at least- I'm lots colder than you, so your climate sounds positively tropical to me! (my one crinum is definitely in a pot) try them outside!!