Post by murrayc on Aug 20, 2017 11:14:57 GMT
Not an allotment issue so much as a general gardening quirk. About 6 years ago, looking to fill a narrow bed by the side of my driveway, benefiting from sun all the morning and most of the afternoon, I bought a very gnarled bulb from what was then Garden Pride. It looked like a fossilised bit of dinsoaur foot and claimed to be a lily crinum x powellii (www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/90456/Crinum-x-powellii/Details). The soil in that bed is clay but has been gradually enriched with spent compost etc over time.
The first spring it produced quite a nice spray of luscious deep green strap shaped leaves but no flowerhead. I wasn't unduly concerned because I had read that this bulb takes time to mature. The second year produced even more leaves but no flowers. Still I left it in, dug around it, mulched it, watered the shoots as soon as they appeared, and mourned the lack of lily flowering. By last summer it was occupying quite a space in the bed, so became a feature in itself, squat and green amongst the various annuals and biennials I've now planted there.
Then this May I looked out one morning and behold!
The tall flower spike contained a crown, which opened, flower succeeding flower, to contain 11 tiny pink trumpets.
Each one lasted a couple of days, and I got used to the show...so much used to it that I failed to notice the emergence of a second flower spike that took over in mid-June and had a slightly smaller, but equally impressive crown of petals. The show lasted into July. There was no scent from the flowers, though I've read that many species of crinum do have quite a strong scent - and perhaps that will come next year. After all, I've waited six years for any sort of show so I don';t want to appear too hasty
Has anyone else had similar experiences with this or other bulbs requiring long germination, or throw any light on reasons why the planting may have deferred flowering for so very long?
The first spring it produced quite a nice spray of luscious deep green strap shaped leaves but no flowerhead. I wasn't unduly concerned because I had read that this bulb takes time to mature. The second year produced even more leaves but no flowers. Still I left it in, dug around it, mulched it, watered the shoots as soon as they appeared, and mourned the lack of lily flowering. By last summer it was occupying quite a space in the bed, so became a feature in itself, squat and green amongst the various annuals and biennials I've now planted there.
Then this May I looked out one morning and behold!
The tall flower spike contained a crown, which opened, flower succeeding flower, to contain 11 tiny pink trumpets.
Each one lasted a couple of days, and I got used to the show...so much used to it that I failed to notice the emergence of a second flower spike that took over in mid-June and had a slightly smaller, but equally impressive crown of petals. The show lasted into July. There was no scent from the flowers, though I've read that many species of crinum do have quite a strong scent - and perhaps that will come next year. After all, I've waited six years for any sort of show so I don';t want to appear too hasty
Has anyone else had similar experiences with this or other bulbs requiring long germination, or throw any light on reasons why the planting may have deferred flowering for so very long?