Advice and help on my Crinum Powellii Lily please!

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 Plant Files 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!

There are many plants that have 'lily' as part of their name, but are not actually Lilium. This generally because they have a 6-petaled form similar to a lily.

Your plant is in the Amaryllis family. I truly wish I could help you with your questions, but I think you might have greater success in the Bulb forum.

Moby,

Thanks for re-directing me to the Bulb Forum. I will copy/paste my post there and see if I can get some advice. BTW, I added the name "lily" myself, thinking it was a Lily. It does not appear on the original packaging.

Amaryllis family????? Who woulda thunk that?
I still have the colored front part of the packaging I bought this bulb in. The flowers are pink, and, yes! they have 6 petals on them, and long pink staymens in the center.

If it is in the Amaryllis family as you say, then planting them partially out of the soil would be correct. No? Still a puzzle why they have never bloomed! On the packaging it says "Blooms all Summer". Hmmmmm???? The only time mine bloomed, the bloom shoot came out of the side and from under the soil (like a sucker), NOT from the center of any leaf cluster as an Amaryllis would. But then, perhaps, it was so tightly pot-bound, it just found it's way out from somewhere!

Thanks for your help, Gita

You're very welcome.

Crinum HATE to be messed with at all. They are very finicky. Once you dig them or move them from one place to the next it may take a year or more before they are happy again and decide to bloom. Mine are in the ground, I am Zone7b, but I don't know if they are hardy in your zone. I have one spot that dig out some to share from and it hasn't bloomed in years. The ones I leave alone bloom constantly from several weeks ago to sometimes early fall. Once established they will be very rewarding, just don't mess with their roots! Hope I helped explain the blooming thing anyway. Here is a picture of mine..an heirloom from my grandmother's home. I was looking for a different picture, but I took this one last evening and it was so unusual I thought you might like it...they are just beginning to bloom this year, so I will get you another shot when they are at their best.

Janet,

That is an awsome flower!

Mine do not look like that at all! The look very much like a daylily and are pink. That is why I posted it here.

I was advised that it is NOT a LILY at all (see previous entrie by George) and have now moved it to the Bulb Forum.

Life sure is full of learning........Gita

Gitagal! I am so new to this forum, I still have some packing on me! I just read of the crinum in this month's Southern Living. I do know like 'our new friend' from GA my grandmother had these which SL identified as "Milk and Wine". In my obtuseness, I never asked questions about things I now wish I had! How do you grown anything well in red clay? (My family is from north Louisiana which has the same clay as we do here in middle GA.) Good luck in your adventure! My husband and I are already planning another plan of attack for next year! But thanks to Dave's Garden, I just might find a crinum and a gardener who doesn't mind listening to new comers talking about living on a treeless plain....a former soybean field!! Our red maples are doing well....soil conditioner and garden soil and mulch and water when we don't get the torrential rains! This is fun!

Welcome to DG and the Lily forum, fluffylady! We're always happy to have more friends to share our passions with.