When we first arrived in Florida, we lived in temporary housing in a condo community.
The first plants I noticed were the large crinum lilies and I decided that I had to have one.
Whenever I went for a walk, I checked the plants to see if I could find any seeds. Its not hard to spot these seeds, they are huge. So I picked a couple of the common green plants but couldn't find any of the dark, almost black plants. One day I was lucky and I found one seed that looked different than all the "green" seeds.
As soon as we moved into this home, I planted the seeds in containers and planted them in the garden as soon as I had a spot for them. Its now 3 years later and the spot I planted this one is now overgrown by other shrubs so it was hardly visible anymore. Mature specimens can cost $50 or more. The darker ones (Queen Emma) cost as much as $100 each !
The different seed produced a plant with darker leaves, but not quite as dark as the Queen Emma - probably a hybrid of the common green one and Queen Emma. Its bigger than the green one and its producing more pups too. I like it when the plants stay solitary, so I'll remove the pups and grow them on to mature size to plant elsewhere in my garden or to give away to friends or maybe to sell during our annual community yard sale.
Crinums are rewarding for me here in Central Florida, I have the red one and the spotted one outside. The grasshoppers though are hard on any lilylike plants, especially the red one.
ReplyDeleteI have all other imaginable bugs here, luckily I have only encountered a handful of grasshoppers here.
ReplyDeleteI feel so strange to say "This is another favorite of mine" - I have so many !