I’ve struggled for awhile how I should start to make the connections between the flowerbulbs in the beds of Southern gardeners to the rest of the world (for there are many), and I have settled on the thought that I just need to start writing. Last week I was in London for the Chelsea flower show. Ann Swan, the botanical artist drawing a series of heirloom flowerbulbs, was displaying and our commissioned works were there. A note to Ann: every time I see them I fall in love with them all over—your work is amazing. There were some highlights to the show, but as far as the art is concerned, we were excited to have the president of the Royal Horticulture Society by one of the prints of the Sternbergia lutea. I was also thrilled, after touring the gardens of Lambeth Palace (home of the Archbishop of Canterbury) to visit the garden history museum next door and see their placard for the Sternbergia in their gardens--they have it first recorded in 1596. The Sternbergia grows for many gardeners in the United States, and does well for warm climate gardeners in areas that is can dry out properly in the summer—our blackland soils generally do a good job of that. It is one of the few bulbs we have left on our website for sale. 
Now, speaking of websites, we wanted to have our new one up for the Texas Co-op power article that just came out, but alas, we missed a deadline! However, it will be first class and we can’t wait to spread the word with the new release. Brad is working furiously to get it ready. He is also working furiously in the field. This rain is great but it is slowing us down! Kudos and thanks to Brad for your hard work in the midst of your new home and wedding plans…also thanks to Katy for the meal you sent our way—we were completely dished from the long day and the food has never been more welcome!
The rain slowed me down yesterday. I knew that I had a talk today with the Mississippi Master Gardeners and that I had to bring some bulbs with me. That meant I had to dig them before I left for Mobile where I stayed last night. Only problem was the rain and lightning. I put on my galoshes and went to the old field to dig the needed crinum bulbs. Thomasine—she owns this field and has a home at the other end of the pasture—came out on her front porch and started yelling something at me motioning for me to come inside. I couldn’t hear her over the rain and lightning, so I just pointed to my watch and yelled “NO TIME….HAVE TO GO.” I know she didn’t understand as she went inside, but I think this is the only time she’s ever been mad at me! With my bulbs in the back of the truck, I began my soaking wet 9 hour drive to Mobile. Everytime I pulled over at a rest stop, all the mother’s gathered their children as I looked pretty ragged and out of place with my rubber boots and dirty appearance.
I made it in time though and gave a talk to the wonderful Master Gardener group in Gautier (Go-shay), MS. The area was devastated by Katrina, but the citizens and volunteers have restored most of the town to what it once was. Some guy shook my hand when I walked in to give the talk…he was older with gray hair nicely combed and was wearing a suit. Didn’t look like the typical master gardener. I was setting up my presentation when the mayor of Gautier was introduced. The nice man in the suit stood up and walked to the podium. There I heard from the gentleman, the mayor, how his city has risen to the occasion and how very proud he was of the people and accomplishments. It was a nice talk.
My host is off work now and I am running off to catch up with him…his name is Chad. He was an old Texas A&M Corps of Cadets “buddy” of mine who was transferred to this area. One aspect I love of my travels is my ability to always see old friends. He and his wife have bought an old home near Dauphin Street (the original home of Mardi Gras) here in Mobile, Alabama and have done a wonderful job of restoring it. I think we’re going to have steaks tonight!
By the way, every time I am bit by a fire ant, I think of the port of introduction into the US…Mobile, AL.
And finally a nice picture from the Chelsea Flower Show.
226 years ago, the British captured Charles Town, South Carolina and the streets became lined with red coated British soldiers. 10 days ago as I walked the streets of Charleston (name changed in 1783) I noticed the streets were lined with short and tank-top wearing British citizens. Yes, they are tourists now, and with the exchange rate at 2 to 1, why shouldn’t they be over here? I walked into the hotel to check in and the lady couldn’t call home to the UK on her cell phone. I offered mine but she managed to make hers work. She was very nice and I was glad I might help. Amazing how things change over 200 years.While in Charleston I visited with a wonderful gentleman by the name of Jenks Farmer. He is Mr. Crinum in the Carolinas and a delight to visit with. He was recently featured in a Dallas Morning New article about crinum bulbs. One of the most famous bulbs he is known for in the crinum world is Regina’s Disco Lounge, a crinum named after the place he discovered it. Some say it is really Crinum x gowenii, but those that have grown it recognize is to be unique and worthy of its special name.
Jenks was managing an 1890’s home in Charleston when I met up with him. The date is special because in the 1890’s, not many homes were being built with the area still reeling from the Civil War. The original owner is not known, but they suspect he had a personality as the home takes several forms, such as the deco chimney, ridged roof, and circular patterned balcony. The garden of course looked spectacular and featured several crinums, including a cold hardy maroon colored crinum called ‘Sangria.’ Another maroon colored foliage crinum beauty in the garden was the small tree sized ‘Queen Emma.’ Jenks is pictured next to it. While I was waiting to visit with him later in the day, he suggested I head out to Boone Hall Plantation, close to Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.
Ruth Knopf, an authority on old roses gave me a wonderful tour of the gardens at Boone Hall Plantation—located just outside of Charleston and known for it’s long allée (doublerow of trees or shrubs lining an avenue resulting in a tunnel-like effect at maturity) of oak trees. Ruth has some favorite classes of old roses which the Tea, Chinas, and Noisettes classes. The Noisettes actually originated on a rice plantation near Charleston shortly after 1800. The rice planter’s name was John Champney, who crossed Rosa chinensis ‘Old Blush’ with Rosa moschata (musk rose) of Europe to come up with the first American class of old roses (the Noisette roses). The first was named for him, ‘Champney’s Pink Cluster’. A local nurserymen named Noisette sent the roses to France for further breeding. Many of the later hybrids such as ‘Reve d’ Or’ and ‘Maréchal Niel’ from these crosses retained the fragrance from the musk rose and frequent blooming of ‘Old Blush’.
Ruth Knopf really knows her roses and has a wonderful quiet wit about her. She is also a frequent traveler and rumor has it she’s up for trips to places like Mexico and more exotic destinations such as Independence, Texas. Many thanks to Ruth, Jenks, and Dr. Bill Welch for their help with this information.
I was going to post this last night, but when I came in from the field, I sat down on the sofa and fell asleep with dirt and all. Killed 4 black widows yesterday and they all popped out a little too close to my hand for me.
I wrapped up my trip to the Carolinas in Charleston, South Carolina, visiting a garden and another Crinum grower last Wednesday. I decided to sleep in Charleston which meant I had to leave at 3AM to drive back to New Bern, North Carolina for my flight. In this blog, I would like to do a quick spotlight on the Crinum grower I visited in Raleigh.
Jay Yourch (pronounced York) is a major crinum aficionado, so much that he snagged the above pictured license plate for his car. The morning I went to visit Jay, a deer had managed to seperate itself from the pack and meander into his fenced in garden. Part of the deer fence had been torn down the night before when a limb fell on it. When Jay saw the deer, he tried to usher it out the back gate. The deer spooked and headed to the side yard. There was another gate over there, so Jay went around the house to open that gate. Before he could get there, he heard a large crash. When he finally made it around the house, the deer had plowed right through the gate, splitting the bars and escaping from the apparent danger. I arrived just as Jay finished fixing the fence.
Jay's online screen name is crinumaniac if that tells you anything. I admired the collection for several reasons, the foremost that every plant was nicely labeled with aluminum tags that were nicely hidden but easily accessible. The tags didn’t rust and were written in such a way that we didn’t spend all of our time hunting the name down. I think I’m going to try to adopt his system.
The second reason I liked his collection was the numerous locations of Crinum ‘Mrs. James Hendry’ (pictured above)he had around the yard. He valued it for the same reason we value many bulbs at Southern Bulb: it was widely adapted to most soils, suitable from the coast to more northern parts of the South, cleaner foliage than most, multiple bloomer, and nice fragrance. But he also had some exceptional collector’s items.
This year we offered the Crinum jagus, a vanilla scented tulip shaped blooming Crinum mostly valued for its attractive foliage in the landscape. Jay had this by his house, but he also had another narrow leaf form (different than the one we offered this year) called Crinum jagus vanillodorum. It is pictured to the left on Jay's patio--notice the board above covering the screen where just that morning a squirrel had clawed through in an attempt at the bird seed inside. 
Another one of my favorite in his collection was Crinum 'Carnival' (Jay recently posted about this bulbs on his blog), which was blooming while I was there. The flowers are normally pink with darker pink stripes. I have not grown it in my collection, but I understand its blooms stay in form for about a week and sends up several stalks generally in quick succession about this time of year.
After a couple hours of Crinum talk, Jay and I went to the back of his property that follows a major creek called Upper Barton’s Creek which feeds a major Raleigh reservoir called Falls Lake--I love to walk up and down creeks, normally slipping on the rocks and falling in. I always find it amazing that even in water rich areas, major cities still face many of the same water problems and needs as their “arid” counterparts. This creek was definitely moving and of course I asked about the fish (bass and catfish). 
The waterfall was nicely displayed by light filtering in from the trees. In the boggy areas, we found some fun natives such as the clumping large leaved arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) and a running plant with smaller arrow leaves called the broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia). Also enjoyed a very large leaved magnolia tree called an umbrella magnolia (Magnolia tripetala) to which my pictures did not do justice.
Still in my suit pants that I haven’t dry cleaned in 3 weeks but worn for two of those weeks straight, we waded through the boggy areas and back up the house and Crinum collection. I enjoyed the bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, on the way up. Once at the house we looked at some more of the collection, which included some nice rain lilies. 
One that had clumped up nice and was in bloom was Zephyranthes ‘El Cielo’ and another was Habranthus martinezii. 
Also enjoyed the nicely compact and colored foliage of a pineapple lily selection called Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’.
A last little bit about Crinum bulbs and the old ‘Milk and Wine’ name that everyone calls us about. Generally two types of bulbs go under this name. The first type is the offspring of Crinum bulbispermum with Crinum scabrum (hybrids called Crinum x herbertii and dates back to the early 1800’s). They produce striped flowers with the coloration of the dark stripes starting off strong and thick in the throats of the flowers and tapering to a point at the end of the petal. The other type of ‘Milk and Wine’ also comes from a C. bulbipsermum but breeds with a C. zeylanicum (produces bulbs such as C. x gowenii). Here the color starts off darker at the tip of the petal and fades towards the throat. Also, many C. zeylanicum hybrids have a pronounced mid rib on the back of their foliage and clawlike petals.
Below is one of our Crinum x herbertii bulbs we have had blooming.
MANY thanks to Jay Yourch as I pass on (or regurgitate) much of this information you gave me and thank you for the time you spent to give me a tour on your beautiful yard and home. Also thank you to Greg Grant for the phone call and help on some Crinum issues yesterday—I WILL blog more…promise.
Now, I have to find a way to get my suit clean. I have had two Weimeraners with me and my suit is no longer clean. I took it by the cleaners and the soonest they could get it to me was Monday, but I leave Monday at 3AM. So, I think I will pull out the wash cloth and start to spot clean it as I prepare to wear it for a week straight once again. When you travel with only carry-on luggage, you have to be creative.
Last note, be sure to check out this bulb on the Pacific Bulb Society wiki. It was in Jay's garden and I wish I could see it when it is in bloom. You can see how it dwarfs the Crinum 'Carnival' in the background. The bloom is similar to the regular C. 'Ellen Bosanquet' pictured below. Brad and I are back out in the field today to face the black widows!
I wrapped up my trip to the Carolinas in Charleston, South Carolina, visiting a garden and another Crinum grower last Wednesday. I decided to sleep in Charleston which meant I had to leave at 3AM to drive back to New Bern, North Carolina for my flight. In this blog, I would like to do a quick spotlight on the Crinum grower I visited in Raleigh.
Jay Yourch (pronounced York) is a major crinum aficionado, so much that he snagged the above pictured license plate for his car. The morning I went to visit Jay, a deer had managed to seperate itself from the pack and meander into his fenced in garden. Part of the deer fence had been torn down the night before when a limb fell on it. When Jay saw the deer, he tried to usher it out the back gate. The deer spooked and headed to the side yard. There was another gate over there, so Jay went around the house to open that gate. Before he could get there, he heard a large crash. When he finally made it around the house, the deer had plowed right through the gate, splitting the bars and escaping from the apparent danger. I arrived just as Jay finished fixing the fence.
Jay's online screen name is crinumaniac if that tells you anything. I admired the collection for several reasons, the foremost that every plant was nicely labeled with aluminum tags that were nicely hidden but easily accessible. The tags didn’t rust and were written in such a way that we didn’t spend all of our time hunting the name down. I think I’m going to try to adopt his system.
The second reason I liked his collection was the numerous locations of Crinum ‘Mrs. James Hendry’ (pictured above)he had around the yard. He valued it for the same reason we value many bulbs at Southern Bulb: it was widely adapted to most soils, suitable from the coast to more northern parts of the South, cleaner foliage than most, multiple bloomer, and nice fragrance. But he also had some exceptional collector’s items.
This year we offered the Crinum jagus, a vanilla scented tulip shaped blooming Crinum mostly valued for its attractive foliage in the landscape. Jay had this by his house, but he also had another narrow leaf form (different than the one we offered this year) called Crinum jagus vanillodorum. It is pictured to the left on Jay's patio--notice the board above covering the screen where just that morning a squirrel had clawed through in an attempt at the bird seed inside. 
Another one of my favorite in his collection was Crinum 'Carnival' (Jay recently posted about this bulbs on his blog), which was blooming while I was there. The flowers are normally pink with darker pink stripes. I have not grown it in my collection, but I understand its blooms stay in form for about a week and sends up several stalks generally in quick succession about this time of year.
After a couple hours of Crinum talk, Jay and I went to the back of his property that follows a major creek called Upper Barton’s Creek which feeds a major Raleigh reservoir called Falls Lake--I love to walk up and down creeks, normally slipping on the rocks and falling in. I always find it amazing that even in water rich areas, major cities still face many of the same water problems and needs as their “arid” counterparts. This creek was definitely moving and of course I asked about the fish (bass and catfish). 
The waterfall was nicely displayed by light filtering in from the trees. In the boggy areas, we found some fun natives such as the clumping large leaved arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) and a running plant with smaller arrow leaves called the broadleaf arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia). Also enjoyed a very large leaved magnolia tree called an umbrella magnolia (Magnolia tripetala) to which my pictures did not do justice.
Still in my suit pants that I haven’t dry cleaned in 3 weeks but worn for two of those weeks straight, we waded through the boggy areas and back up the house and Crinum collection. I enjoyed the bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, on the way up. Once at the house we looked at some more of the collection, which included some nice rain lilies. 
One that had clumped up nice and was in bloom was Zephyranthes ‘El Cielo’ and another was Habranthus martinezii. 
Also enjoyed the nicely compact and colored foliage of a pineapple lily selection called Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’.A last little bit about Crinum bulbs and the old ‘Milk and Wine’ name that everyone calls us about. Generally two types of bulbs go under this name. The first type is the offspring of Crinum bulbispermum with Crinum scabrum (hybrids called Crinum x herbertii and dates back to the early 1800’s). They produce striped flowers with the coloration of the dark stripes starting off strong and thick in the throats of the flowers and tapering to a point at the end of the petal. The other type of ‘Milk and Wine’ also comes from a C. bulbipsermum but breeds with a C. zeylanicum (produces bulbs such as C. x gowenii). Here the color starts off darker at the tip of the petal and fades towards the throat. Also, many C. zeylanicum hybrids have a pronounced mid rib on the back of their foliage and clawlike petals.
Below is one of our Crinum x herbertii bulbs we have had blooming.MANY thanks to Jay Yourch as I pass on (or regurgitate) much of this information you gave me and thank you for the time you spent to give me a tour on your beautiful yard and home. Also thank you to Greg Grant for the phone call and help on some Crinum issues yesterday—I WILL blog more…promise.
Now, I have to find a way to get my suit clean. I have had two Weimeraners with me and my suit is no longer clean. I took it by the cleaners and the soonest they could get it to me was Monday, but I leave Monday at 3AM. So, I think I will pull out the wash cloth and start to spot clean it as I prepare to wear it for a week straight once again. When you travel with only carry-on luggage, you have to be creative.
Last note, be sure to check out this bulb on the Pacific Bulb Society wiki. It was in Jay's garden and I wish I could see it when it is in bloom. You can see how it dwarfs the Crinum 'Carnival' in the background. The bloom is similar to the regular C. 'Ellen Bosanquet' pictured below. Brad and I are back out in the field today to face the black widows!
It has been too long since I have wrote, so I told myself last night when I went to bed here in North Carolina that before I did any other work the next morning, I would write for my blog. The truth is, when I become tired, I don’t blog, as writing does not come all that naturally too me. This spring has made me tired, thus the blog has sufferred.
I traveled to North Carolina for a speech in New Bern at Tryon Palace. The talk was on Saturday and it was one of those that I really felt I did a good job on, and everybody else said so also. The day before, I did not feel like I did my best, and I find it funny how it can change from day to day. Tryon Palace (Lisa Wimpfeimer) were wonderful host and I enjoyed my visit in this historic North Carolina town. New Bern, believe it or not, claims to be THE PORT where Captain Roberts brought home the red spider lily (Lycoris radiata) from Japan, and many residents call it the New Bern lily! Lisa and I are going to continue to exchange information as we hunt down the facts surrounding this heirloom. Tryon Palace itself was very nice and is a historic site very much dedicated to the proper restoration of the gardens and structures according to the time period.
Now I am off to visit some Crinum growers. Two of the nation’s best Crinum breeders were at my speech on Friday, when I really got nervous and sped things up. It doesn’t help when you open up the wrong presentation and don’t realize until 5 minutes into your talk! Hopefully visit with another grower today. It is Crinum time all around the South. Many of the early hybrids and C. bulbispermum are coming up. Our C. bulbispermum have already bloomed and are sending up another stalk. This one below is a C. scabrum and C. bulbispermum cross and is quickly becoming one of our favorites.
The crowning moment in travels this spring was a trip to Jersey Island (hence the Jersey Cow in the picture), a channel island between England and France. This trip was for several reasons, which I will go into later, but it started off on the wrong foot. We all seem to have a problem around Southern Bulb, and that is remembering our passports. I was in Houston, ready to go, when I realized my passport was 5 hours away back at the farm. Therefore, I left Houston in the late afternoon, arrived back at the farm (and cleaned my fish aquarium), then headed to College Station where I met my ride to Houston at 3AM. My body was hinging on utter exhaustion, and the international travel did me in. Even with filtered coffee and espressos at every meal, I still couldn’t keep my eyes open, much less have time to blog in the evenings.
The bulbs are creating a good deal of excitement over there though. Just next week, Ann Swan’s artwork chronicling the heirloom bulbs will be displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show. She just finished the old Roman Hyacinth, and used as her example bulbs from two well known horticulturists in the South. The next will be the Byzantine gladiolus and the Lycoris radiata, both of which are spectacular. It was to my surprise on my last trip overseas to have a 10 minute interview with the BBC and a nice sit down conversation with the local paper. I plan to write more about these experiences, how they relate to the South and how the flower bulbs in your back yard (many of which are the “Adam and Eve” of modern hybrids) are making a splash around the world.
The bulbs are creating a good deal of excitement over there though. Just next week, Ann Swan’s artwork chronicling the heirloom bulbs will be displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show. She just finished the old Roman Hyacinth, and used as her example bulbs from two well known horticulturists in the South. The next will be the Byzantine gladiolus and the Lycoris radiata, both of which are spectacular. It was to my surprise on my last trip overseas to have a 10 minute interview with the BBC and a nice sit down conversation with the local paper. I plan to write more about these experiences, how they relate to the South and how the flower bulbs in your back yard (many of which are the “Adam and Eve” of modern hybrids) are making a splash around the world.
I traveled to North Carolina for a speech in New Bern at Tryon Palace. The talk was on Saturday and it was one of those that I really felt I did a good job on, and everybody else said so also. The day before, I did not feel like I did my best, and I find it funny how it can change from day to day. Tryon Palace (Lisa Wimpfeimer) were wonderful host and I enjoyed my visit in this historic North Carolina town. New Bern, believe it or not, claims to be THE PORT where Captain Roberts brought home the red spider lily (Lycoris radiata) from Japan, and many residents call it the New Bern lily! Lisa and I are going to continue to exchange information as we hunt down the facts surrounding this heirloom. Tryon Palace itself was very nice and is a historic site very much dedicated to the proper restoration of the gardens and structures according to the time period.
Now I am off to visit some Crinum growers. Two of the nation’s best Crinum breeders were at my speech on Friday, when I really got nervous and sped things up. It doesn’t help when you open up the wrong presentation and don’t realize until 5 minutes into your talk! Hopefully visit with another grower today. It is Crinum time all around the South. Many of the early hybrids and C. bulbispermum are coming up. Our C. bulbispermum have already bloomed and are sending up another stalk. This one below is a C. scabrum and C. bulbispermum cross and is quickly becoming one of our favorites.
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