Hi Carol
I just had to log in so I could tell you how beautiful your yard is and I love the way you've made this garden with the water in the background.

Makes me wish I lived in Jacksonville!

Susie

Carol, I can come by tomorrow or on the weekend if you work. These are a much deeper pink than mine and I'd love to have a few.
Cora in Arlington

They're beautiful! Wish I lived closer to you :)
Marcia

Thanks you guys! I wish these things didn't way 10-12 lbs each or I'd mail out a ton of them. If anyone is going through Jacksonville - up or down I-95 over the holidays - you are welcome to stop and get some.

Cora, I sent you email!

Carol

Do you have to dig up the bulbs ever year like tulips? Are they suitable for dryland gardening or do they require a fair amount of water? I've not ventured into bulbs yet so I'm clueless :)

Looks really great!

These crinums grow huge and no, they are just about the complete opposite of tulips. They get very angry when disturbed and won't bloom for a year or so when moved or lifted. But once settled in, and with adequate sun, they hold an annual flower fiesta!

I'm not familiar with dryland gardening, but these tough bulbs can be planted and forgotten. They don't need a bit of extra care once put in the ground. In fact, they are about impossible to kill in the south. (But they will turn to mush in cold northern climates.) Mine never get anything but rain watering. They don't even blink. Even when lifted, you can see in the photos below that the leaves don't wilt.

They overwinter nicely in the ground as far north as South Carolina, I have read. Mine have been in the ground since I planted them. They stay there year-round.

Here's what the lifted bulbs look like. The large and jumbo bulbs weigh a ton! The jumbo bulb (far left) in the photos below had two scapes (flower stalks) coming up.

Carol

I grow those too, but my flowers always fall over, do you have any idea why? Do you to anything for those straight stems?

Yikes, those are huge! Thank you for the visuals :)
Marcia

Those are cool! Wish I was headed your way soon, but I'm too busy w/work & upcoming holidays.

Can I ask you a bit about their culture though? I planted a bulb of Crinum powellii Album this spring and am wondering what to expect. It came up, and had good foliage. No blooms, but I knew to expect that. About thanksgiving the foliage started dying down and now it has almost no foliage. It has not come close to freezing here. So I'm wondering - do they normally go dormant in the fall even if it isn't cold? What do yours do? Do they have foliage all year? Or do they have a dormancy period?

Mine hold onto foliage all year long - even through the minor freezes. When it does freeze, the outer leaves turn mushy and black but the inner leaves usually remain fine. They never appear to go dormant and push up new leaves within a couple of days. (But of course, they don't bloom until May.)

Does yours get full sun all day or at least through the majority of the day? The ones I have that no longer bloom are being slowly canopied by a large tree slowly growing overhead. I am going to move the crinums so that they get full sun next year.

If anyone still wants some of these I have quite a few left.

Thanks for the information on their culture! My bulb is in a full sun spot. That is cool that yours don't go dormant! I hope that once my bulb gets established it will do the same.

Angela

Carol, I just wanted to say I've never seen such a beautiful display of these. Thanks so much for posting. Maybe they love the nice leaf mulch I see? Your setting with the pond and the weeping willow tree is just heaven to look at! Great place.

Anna

Anna, thank you so much for the compliments. I actually have two different groupings of these crinums - and both areas went nuts. I lifted a bunch a couple days ago and the babies (now full grown) had babies!

I am one of about seven houses around the pond but lucky enough to have purchased the center lot. The other side of the pond backs up to the main entry into the neighborhood so there will never be houses on the other side. Kinda nice.

My yard is just about at the point that I will feel comfortable posting big view pictures in the spring. It has been a long time coming and I just hated it when it looked like a Disney World of Plants. At first, nothing looked coordinated or grouped or planned. Just like a giant free-for-all, plopped down in any ol' space. That wasn't what was really going on - I did have a plan - but it took awhile for it to come together. I think it is going to finally "look right" come spring - I hope.

Can you send me info on where you are at? If you still have some of course. I'd love to have my Stepmother come out to pick some up for us both. (She's near the airport)

I recently lost a friend named Ellen to breast cancer and this would be a fantastic tribute to her, to grow these in her memory.

Barbie

Barbie, I would love to share with her. I am located in the southside near the intersection of Beach and Kernan. Please send me an email address at mango252000-gw at yahoo dott com and we'll make a plan!

Carol

Katkin, sorry I missed your question earlier! Yeah, those heavy flowers do fall sometimes. The tighter the plants have grown, the more the flower scapes are supported by the other plants. But if they want to fall, I stake them with bamboo or those wire holders with the circles on top.

Carol

Thanks for the info Carol, :o).

Beautiful photos! I had this exact crinum lily when we lived in Savannah. I so miss them! But alas, you are a bit of a trek from me, down here in Fort Lauderdale...still, I am so tempted...I love those crinums.
Randy

Hi Carol,

I realize this is a very old post but every now and then I search for Ellen Bosanquets here in Gainesville without success. I'd be happy even to buy some from you if you'd consider it. Or maybe even you could refer me to wherever you originally found yours. I just fell in love with them the first time I saw them. And I can't say it helped the craving to see the spectacular photos you posted of yours! I'll keep checking this posting in case you see it and respond. Thanks, Gale

Hi Gale,

They are so pretty and I love the ones I have left. They are just blooming now. I'm so sorry I don't have any more to share. I thinned mine down a few years ago to make room for other plants. I purchased mine on eBay back in 2005 or 2006 and in the process, met the seller who is a world-renowned expert on crinums and happens to live in my own back yard! He allowed me to come to his home to pick up my purchases. His name is Nestor White, his eBay user ID is bulbsnmorenurseryfl and his eBay store is Bulbs N More Nursery. (As of this moment, he has 413 listings for various types of crinum lilies, including Ellen Bosanquet.) To say he knows a lot about crinums is a vast understatement. He is a very nice man and his garden was simply fabulous.

Here is a link to a nice article on him that was in our local paper, The Florida Times-Union:

A passion takes root

I hope you can find some!

Carol in Jacksonville

One more thought... you may also want to try your local Craigslist. Use a search something like the following. (Misspellings are intentional in order to pull in posts with the same):

Gainesville Craigslist search: crinum lily lilly lilies lillies

I see some listings in Gainesville that include crinum.

Carol

Wow, thanks so much Carol; I'll try all your suggestions. And one more question, to get a bed roughly the size of yours, about how many would you think I should start with?

Happy gardening, Gale

Carol, I loved looking at his Ebay site. There is one crinum I like to have there now, and orangey red. One I already have he calls stargazer, but I knew it by milk and wine. I know I'll go back and look some more.

Gale, I think I started with one or two bulbs - maybe medium-sized? It's hard to remember. In full sun or mostly sun, they multiply rapidly and bloom fantastically. The plants pup and produce offsets at the base which you can remove and plant separately. (Each plant produces several offsets.)

The second, third and fourth pictures from the top were a bed of nine plants, I think, that I had relocated from their first spot. If you have a little patience, just buy maybe one, two or three. They do multiply quickly.

As I got more and more shade, they didn't bloom as much. I'm committed to shade gardening - I have so many trees and understory trees planted in my yard - and that is why I shared the bulbs. I still have the originally-purchased plants and they still bloom somewhat. I recently limbed up the trees that they are under - so they are suddenly exposed to a lot more light - and am getting a nice flush of blooms this year.

Katkin, I love looking through his "inventory", too! I also had one that looked like Stargazer - it was called Stars & Stripes - he sells it. If you get something new, let us know!

Carol

I just had to add. I'm in Indiana, zone 6, and I also bought 2 bulbs from eBay last year. I had NO clue what I was doing (first year gardener) and they appeared to not make it through winter. I just dug them up, to replant something else and to my suprise, HUGE, healthy bulbs! I quickly put them back, hoping I didn't do much damage. All I did was put a mulch mound over the top of them in the fall!

They should over winter for you, especially if you keep them mulched. The foliage will die off, but come back in the spring. I am zone 10a so the foliage doesn't die off, but sometimes I will cut it all off for a clean start.

klstmommy, I had no idea they would survive Indiana's zone 6. That is really a testament to their hardiness!

katkin, I do the same clean-start thing. It gives you a chance to remove everything that's ratty and makes it look so much prettier in the spring.
Great minds...

Carol

Yes Carol, great minds. I never used to do that, but then didn't like the ratty look they would get, when I complained about it here on GW, some one told me I could cut them all back each year and have been doing so since. So I've grown to love them even more.

Hi Carol,

I'm very late in responding to your post, I was searching for this plant and came across your info. I live in West Palm Beach and volunteer at the Mounts Botanical Garden which is where I saw this amazing lily. I am a new and first time grandma, and my daughter lives in Jacksonville, I am driving up every Monday and leaving every Friday so I can care for my 3 month grandson old because my daughter had to go back to work. I am very blessed to be able to be a help for 2 months before I have to go back to work. Any chance you would have any of the bulbs still available, I could possibly swap plants, if I have something you like. I know I have rambled on and you post was 6 months ago but any chance at all would be greatly appreciated .

Thank you,

Dena

Hi Dena, I have plenty I could divide if you want to make a stop in Port St Lucie. :o) LMK.

Hi Dena,

It's Gale from Gainesville and I'm still searching for Ellen Bosanquets! Any chance you might have enough for two? It's ok if you don't but I do pass your way on Friday... Thanks

Gale, do you me, Katkin? I have a lot I could share, if you want some. I got them as a pass-a-long myself. So I can't swear it's Ellen Bosanquests, but it sure looks like it.

Katkin, thank you so much for responding, I would love it if you had some to share. When I head home from Jacksonville it's about 5pm I would not be in your area until about 8pm. I am not going to next week to Jacksonville, would it be possible for me to drive to you on Monday sometime? Are there any plants you don't have I might have that I could bring? Spinach tree, amaryllis, bromeliads?? If Monday does not work, I will be back to Jacksonville the following week and hopefully work something out. If that works for your schedule, email me at spottedacres@bellsouth.net, to coordinate a time and place.

Thank you again, Dena

Dena, I am sending you an email. :o)

I am another one to find this blog really really late. I just moved south from the Philly area and am just nuts about the pink crinum lilies =ever since I saw them in a garden tour here in beaufort, SC. I drive down to Delray Beach to take care of my mother in law's house several times a year and if anyone out there has some to share I would love to come a get a couple. Susan

Susan, if you swing by Jacksonville, I can share. Please send me a Houzz message.

Carol

Hi Carol! thanks ever so much! cannot wait to grow these beauties. I thought I replied earlier this am to this but apparently not. so will try again. please send me your email and/or address or phone so I can connect.

Susan, just noticed this message. I have your number and I will call you tomorrow (Sunday).

Carol

thanks!!

Carol, no idea if you still have some to give away but my niece just started attending college in Jacksonville and I would love to ask her to pick some up if you have some that still need homes. I used to rent and had them. I'm a new homeowner and miss having them. My cats miss them too because they were great for lizard hunting! And naps.

Hi, Joyce, over the years I moved to full-shade gardening (planted lots of trees!) and I no longer have any crinum. You can probably easily find some as I see them listed on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc. all the time. Here is a current Jacksonville Craigslist listing:

Red or Marron Lily Plants - $5 (orange park)

Your kitty is so cute!

Thank you for replying, and replying so quickly ❤️. I found some online for about $14/bulb but then there's shitting which adds a little more to the cost. I actually hadn't thought about Facebook marketplace or craigslist, those are great ideas! I'm hoping to find something local and that might be a great way to go. Thank you again and happy Sunday 😊

If you look for them on Craigslist, pull out all the stops on misspellings and misnomers. I would search for something like:

lilly|lily|lillies|lilies|crinum|ellen|amaryllis|plant|plants

Great idea! I actually just copied what you wrote, LoL!