Cardiocrinum

While in NZ I fell in love with the Cardiocrinum....I think it was giganteum or something BIG like that. Can anyone recommend a good grower or want to trade something for some tubers (or whatever they grow from). In New Plymouth these plants were totally invasive...I wonder if I will find the same problem here?

Carol

I was hoping you'd get an answer from someone who grew these. Here's the link to plantfiles on them.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53513/
Bev

Thanks so much!!! Funny....in New Zealand...in a Rainforest...they are an invasive weed...seeds and bulbs coming up all over the place. I would say zone 10.

Makes you wish you could go dig some up, doesn't it? Plenty of examples of 'one man's weed is another man's (or woman's) treasure' :-)

I do grow it and have some on the way to maturity, but I really think zone 11 would be too warm. I searched and found perhaps an honest take on this,

http://www.asiaticanursery.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=218

Thanks so much. Interesting!!! Still want to try them.

I can understand that, like I want to grow all the impossible tropical plants here!

Wallaby...have you followed Eclipse in Tropicals? He grows the MOST amazing tropicals in Iowa (the frozen tundra as far as I am concerned...AND hot in the summer). He does have a large greenhouse...but...simply amazing what he does. The entire city plantings are tropicals in the summer...

Carol

No I haven't, will have to take a look!

The main differences with here and even colder areas in the US are our very cold summers, spring, autumn, if we are lucky we get some warm weather interspersed with the cold. It's the island versus large land mass weather.

I do grow quite a few sort of tropicals, but many things struggle. I have greenhouse, not large, but don't heat them. They do help with over-wintering.

Some of the very cold tolerant 'look' tropical, as I am sure you have found it. Acanthus, Fatsia Japonica, Agapanthus, Clivia, Calla Lily, cold hardy palms, Alstromeria, Rhodies...Crocosmia...