I just added a couple of photos to this post. My Chacala garden has three of these plants growing in it. They are growing bigger everyday, and are about 4 feet across and four feet high, not counting the blossom stem.

Apparently they are Criniums. They seem to blossom either two or three times a year. I am going back to check my notes later. One just finished blooming, and the other just started.

The stalk seems to just shoot up overnight. After a couple of days they look like this.


Then in takes another few days to burst in huge blooms.

The blooms are usually between a foot and 18 inches across. Maybe more. This is a totally new plant for me. The first time I saw this plant, I don't remember seeing it anywhere before, and I didn't notice the blossom until it was fully in bloom.

My plant book for this area, Linda Abbott Tripp's "
Ornamental Plants and Flowers of Tropical Mexico" was created by a non-gardener. But has been very helpful for me when I am trying to identify a plant. Unfortunately the author doesn't use the Spanish names, which makes it difficult when searching nurseries. Otherwise it's very helpful.

The author says the Crinium is in the
Amaryllidaceae family
, and is also called Swamp Lily, and Milk and Wine Lady. It seems to like heavy dampish soil and grows from a giant bulb. I have tried various ways to propagate it without success.
I don't want to dig any of the plants up. They are very large. The strapping leaves are often about 5 feet long. I think they are spectacular looking and am glad my landlady planted them here. She thinks she planted one plant about 5 years ago. She doesn't know how the other plants grew up about 10 feet away. Neither do I, but I sure like them.
2 comments:
Ohhh! One of my favorite flowers. Someone gave me a variety similar to these, but I didn't know what the bulbs were and left them by the compost bin. When I finally planted them, they were gorgeous. Yours are beautiful! Mine bloomed in the summer. Let us know if if blooms again.
What a fantistic plant. I thought at first it was going to burst into something like a Bird of Paradise. Yours is exotically beautiful and I wish to luck in trying to propogate it.
Post a Comment