We are all about Crinums on this episode! They are the Plant of the Week, they are the subject of the interview, and I even send you off to hear more about them in The Play List!
Plant of the Week
So this was a plant that I knew vaguely about but had put in the same category as Bromeliads— cool, but I’m not growing that. If I were not such a lazy gardener, of course I could grow most anything. Lazy gardeners are a dime a dozen and yet I am proud to be part of that esteemed group. Crinums are almost as common, with 180 different types, and it turns out that I CAN and I WILL grow them in my zone 7A (probably rapidly changing to 7A- or 7B+) garden! As I sit down here in sunny Florida concocting this post, I am basking in the glory that they surround me.
We are living in a large golf complex for the month of January, and it’s clear that one landscaper is in charge of the plant choices, and he or she is a fan of C. augustum ‘Queen Emma’ because the place is lousy with them. I am loving it! Look at those strappy leaves and the beautiful lily flower.
The Crinum can be, depending on the type, the largest bulb in the world, and many of them are tropical, but it turns out that some can grow in colder climes and also that they are darned easy to make work in a container if you live way up north, just like a Canna or Elephant Ears. Let’s learn more.
Guest
Augustus Jenkins Farmer III is a charming southern gentleman, and I was happy to soak in his knowledge of the Crinum. I feel like he is the BEST source to learn about this amazing bulb because his passion for it has produced a farm, a mail order business, and more recently, a book: Crinum: Unearthing the History and Culture of the World’s Biggest Bulb. (Disclosure: includes affiliate links)
Ben Folds: a wise alternative rocker.
Jenks talks about his love of them (but he loves so many plants!) and how they grow on the podcast. He goes into lots of different types, how to plant and divide. their history, their culture, and their culture that is not horticulture. Reputations of plants come and go just like clothing styles, but Jenks would like to help Crinums to get away from their redneck past. As Ben Folds said, you can cover it up, and I think Jenks is a good one to get behind the cause of the Crinum. Because they are so indestructible and long lived, they tend to exist in places no longer, and perhaps never, frequented by the high brow crowd. But they are beautiful flowers! It’s like the lowly marigold, or the forsythia: doomed to be maligned because they are too easy and too common. I mean, in the South.
Crinums are a passion for Jenks, and he shares that not only in his new book, but also on YouTube and on his web site. I am definitely going to add these to my garden, and I feel confident that I will give my new little (that’s relative) bulbs a good home because of all the information he has made available on how to grow these plants.
These images are from Jenks’s website. Great horticultural intel to get us all started.
I’m shopping on Jenks’s website as I procrastinate about finishing this blog post. Thinking I may go for the “Cold Hardy Collection” but still not sure.
In the podcast I referred to Jenks’s recent post on Garden Rant, in which he talks about his reputation. It’s not a bad reputation, it’s just that there is much more to Jenks than being The Crinum Guy. Sort of like there is much more to the reputation of the Crinum than being a pass along plant commonly found in old cemeteries and by deserted houses. They are beautiful flowers, interesting foliage, and awe-inspiring bulbs too, and I can’t wait to try them!
The Play List— to do
Thank you, dear sweet Loblolly, for landing next to and not on my ancestor’s urn.
When heavy snow comes down fast, you really don’t have to pamper your plants as much as I read on the internet. Of course you don’t want to do more damage that the snow would, but sometimes there is not a moment to lose! Get out the shovel or broom and free those branches up, taking care of yourself (mind the trees around you!) at the same time.
Resist the temptation to garden when your soil is saturated. Soil compaction can happen when you and your boots mush down the crevices that are essential to letting the water makes its way around that soil. Ironic that treading on wet soil can make it so soil can’t get wet the way it should, but it’s true!
Order seeds if you haven’t! So many new gardeners— you don’t want to share with all the neophytes, now do you? :)
And lastly, how about a public service message? We got a really beautiful flower arrangement from our son and daughter-in-law to help welcome us to our little rental which is appointed with the largest BarcaLounger I have ever seen and a strange assortment of ‘art’ and ironwork that wasn’t attractive when it was picked out from from Home Goods in 1994 and certainly isn’t attractive now. .
SO gorgeous, and HUGE! Probably 2’ tall.
I immediately wanted to dismantle it, meaning the arrangement, as the BarcaLounger looked daunting, because I wanted spread the goodness in several little arrangements. I am no flower arranger, but I don’t understand why that horrible Oasis had to be a part of it. Such a narrow vase, and so many flowers— but it came with a huge hunk of that horrible plastic.
All single use plastics are bad, but Oasis floral foam is worse than bad. It degrades down to tiny nano-plastics, and then doesn’t degrade farther for a long long time. So it ends up in our Oceans, then our fish, then, eventually, in us. Gross.
This is oasis. And a look of dismay.
So I made a video on Instagram that talked about it a little and here is my simple plea: when ordering flowers, simply ask for no plastics, please. That should work, right? And don’t forget to say “no utensils, please” with your take out food. Hate it when I forget to!
Listen
If you want more of Jenks, he was a guest on the wonderful A Way to Garden Podcast just last week. Margaret Roach asked him all kinds of good questions, and the link is here.
And NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY! All you have to do to enter to get Jenks’s book in the mail is to give me your first born child. No? Okay, then how about this instead. All you have to do, and you have a choice of A,B, or C, is write to me at LHarris@LHGardens.com and tell me…
A. What is a new flowering plant for you that you either have gotten or want to get for you 2022 garden?
or
B. What is the weirdest or funniest thing that happened to you in your 2021 garden?
or
C. What plant or plants would you like to prune this winter but you need to know how?
All you need to do is send me your answer to ONE of these. But if you feel like sharing more, then more than one is fine. Jenks is not just The Crinum Guy, by the way. He is also a good writer and very funny.