Crinum
Beat the heat with a cool crinum
by Andrea Sprott
You may think the crinum is not exactly a collector’s plant, but to me, there is no better botanical trophy for a heat-bedraggled garden than a good old-fashioned (and often hard to come by) swamp lily.
In the hottest part of the year, our gardens look so tired. Those spring and early summer-flowering perennials have bloomed their little hearts out for us for two, and sometimes even three months; they want nothing better than to just take a dirt nap.
Can you blame them?
They’ve been out there, strutting their stuff, working seven double shifts a week. By now, I’m even tired of looking at a few of them!
Enter the sweet relief of Crinum x ‘Ellen Bosanquet’.
Enter the sweet relief of Crinum x ‘Ellen Bosanquet’. Photo by Andrea Sprott.
A true Southern belle, Miss Bosanquet (pronounced bozen-ket) invites you onto her cool veranda for a refreshing mint julep.
She’s a gem of a gal, with her emerald rippling leaves and ruby sparkling blooms. Strap-like but almost succulent 3-4-inch wide foliage begins to emerge in April, but doesn’t reach its full 4-foot potential until June. A mass of this plant is a sight to behold; it’s much like a rosette fountain of thick green Gene Simmons tongues (in a good, non-grotesque way). Then in late June, 3-4-foot tall meaty green scapes rise seemingly overnight. It may take a few days for the flowers to open, but how worth the wait they are! Miss Ellen’s fuchsia-ruby outward-facing trumpets open in succession, each lasting at least a few days, which also makes it a great cut flower. Even if you’re blind, she’s a show stopper with her intoxicatingly sweet spicy scent. (And you all know this “Odorata Snob” loves her some intoxicating scents!)
The large bulbs of crinums make great masses over time, and like fine wine, get better with age. Many people say not to disturb them for at least 7 to 10 years, but I have routinely divided mine, and they have taken only a year or two to rebound before they bloom their heads off again. Of course, the larger the bulb, the nearer to blooming age it will be. Plant crinums with their shoulders just at or a little above soil level. Some folks swear by giving crinum bulbs great drainage, but mine have grown and flourished in Piedmont clay for many, many years. Give Crinum x ‘Ellen Bosanquet’ full to part sun, a spring dressing of either composted manure or bulb fertilizer (if you remember—which I frequently do not), and plenty of summer moisture. Although hardy in USDA Zones 6b-10, I highly recommend removing the foliage entirely just before the first hard frost; otherwise you’ll be left with an unsavory mass of slimy leaf goo. That’s the only somewhat negative thing I can say about crinums.
Give this plant some room in your summer garden, and let the cooling begin. A sight and scent for sore eyes and noses in the hottest, and often most miserable time of the gardening year, Crinum x ‘Ellen Bosanquet’ is a sure cure for this plant addict’s Southern Fried Garden syndrome. © Andrea Sprott 2011 all rights reserved
Andrea Sprott is an Extension Master Gardener Volunteer with Mecklenburg County, NC. Her low-maintenance suburban garden is home to a vast inventory of plant material both large and small.
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