I seem to remember reading that deeply planted crinums flower more and off set less. Can anyone confirm that for me? I would like to include a couple of my burgundy crinums in a bed but dont want a large clump forming for lack of space.
Beth
crinum question
Yes. DEEP planting and mulching will encourage the bulb to grow larger rather than produce offsets. Some say as deep as 18". (!)
I guess you haven't had any hardiness issues with 'Burgundy' there, but setting this one deep will also help it withstand cold as it is of moderate hardiness.
Eighteen inches it is then. I hate bastard trenching 'cause I am a lazy gardener (not to mention getting older and artheritic) but I can deal with it for one or two bulbs.
Thanks
Beth
Is there anything as wearing as digging up an old established clump of Crinums? I think that's why people get tired of them after awhile and just let them go or don't even plant them to begin with. Helps to have a friend with a back-hoe!
Not that they're all deep-rooting! Some of the tropicals and aquatics don't go so deep.
But the commonest and most passed-along ones seem to be the ones that just dig themselves in deeper with roots going six feet in all directions.
I think that lifting them every 3-5 years helps avoid the HUGE back-breaker of letting one go too long. And enriching and loosening the soil first helps too. The deep rooters love heavy clay soil, and will work their roots through hardpan that is heck to break up with a shovel.
Good luck!
Robert.
The last time I dug some to move them, the neighbor came running and asked if she could have the ones that were cut by a shovel. I looked at them, then picked the ones that had some basal roots on them and said sure! She planted them. They grew.
Mine aren't planted nearly that deep, but I can assure you that I have seen many bulbs pull themselves downward until they reached a spot that was comfortable for them.
I watched some paperwhite bulbs that I just left in a shaded area do that one year. When I finally noticed that they were gone, I figured a critter had moved them. NOT! They came up from that spot the very next year. I was amazed.
You see, paperwhites are hardy here. You can't kill them. The leaves have already emerged. They are about 20" tall or more right now. They bloom during our winters. Frost/freezes may damage the blooms, but they keep on and on and on...
When I got the crinums from my sister's ranch in Texas, she had to help me dig them. We dug and dug and dug. The paperwhites also came from the ranch, but they were not as hard to get to the bottom of them.
When I dug the crinum that was at my grandmother's in Texas, I dug and dug and dug and dug. She didn't have that many. She just kept saying how pretty they were. When I finally managed to get a few dislodged from 'sandy loam soil', I was exhausted. The bulbs were HUGE and deep!
Call me a whimp, but a small backhoe would be nice!
Good Luck!
You're lucky to have that sandy loam. Around here it's all red "dirt" as we say. Over time you can get it nice and enriched and workable, but below that, it just concrete hard.
So, many people just dig a hole big enough to accomodate the bulb and leave it at that. Good old workhorse Crinums just go on and make themselves at home. The years later, they're faced with digging a trench through the unworked soil around the clump and does the "cussing" ever begin then!
I dug two clumps last year that were way down in hard red clayey loam and you know the rest.....
One clump wasn't so bad: it was on top of a sharp slope, so all I had to do was go straight in on the slope below the roots and then dig around a little bit on top and the whole clump slide down the hill. Ahhhhh, it only took an hour and a half. LOL.
Robert.
I just finished digging some crinums for a trade. I have sandy loam here, unlike the red clay I had in Birmingham. Even so, I broke the shovel handle trying to pry a bulb up. I ended up digging the soil away from the roots with my hands, and using my body weight, which is considerable, to leverage a base ball sized bulb away from the clump. While I was at it, I removed a dozen or so small offsets about the size of daffodil bulbs. I might as well thin the whole clump while I have the time.
I wish I knew for certain which crinums I have. One was labled 'Long neck' and the other was a gift from a friend who dug up a clump in Mississippi. Long neck has pale pink flowers with about eight to the scape. The other has blooms which in the trade appear to be called burgundy. I would call it a deep pink or rose. That one has from fifteen to eighteen flowers to the scape.
Beth
Beth~
It sounds like a winner with the high bud count!
'Burgundy' is naturally long-necked and should easily take to *deep* planting as would anything called "long-necked", lol. Is it possible that 'Burgundy" was meant as being more descriptive than offered as the named hybrid 'Burgundy'?
Enjoy those lovely sounding plants!
Robert.