Arctic Crinum: One Customer’s Success Story

        We love stories like this. Crinums are usually found in the South – or indoors – and most experts recommend them only for zones 7 and warmer. But don’t we all dream of growing plants that really shouldn’t survive in our gardens? And experimenting is one of the great pleasures of gardening. So we weren’t entirely surprised by this email from our good customer Lynn Falls of zone-5/6 Grand Rapids, Michigan:
        “Received your January newsletter and read about the ‘milk and wine’ crinum. I know the zone says 7b, but I just wanted to let you know I have one that has lived quite happily in Grand Rapids for three years. I cut it down in fall but it doesn’t really die down. The first year it didn’t bloom. The second year I had one flower stalk, and last year I had two stalks of beautiful blooms.
        “It looks exactly like the picture of the one you have for sale, pink and white striped. My sister in northwest Arkansas sent it to me. She received it from her mother-in-law who is in her 90s. This is from a VERY old plant.
        “I have it on the east side of my house near the foundation. These guys are tough, just plant in a protected area. I don’t do anything special to protect it for winter. But I am the wood chip queen, so it has about three inches of wood chips on it.” (June 2010)

New This Month: Milk-and-Wine Crinum

        Crinums are big, fragrant, lily-like perennials that, to quote Steve Bender of Southern Living, “take sun or light shade, like wet or dry soil, bloom repeatedly from spring to fall, and live longer than Adam.” The ones with striped flowers are called milk-and-wine lilies, and when our Louisiana grower (an heirloom himself) offered us an especially lovely variety from his wife’s family farm, we jumped at the chance. If you like tough, exuberant, old-fashioned flowers and you’ve got a sunny spot in zones 7b-9bS, take a look at it here. But be prepared to jump. It’s gorgeous, and our small supply won’t last long. (Jan. 2010)

Saving Tuberoses and Learning from an 11-Year-Old

        “There’s nothing I love more than the way tuberoses smell on an August night,” writes NPR commentator Julie Zickefoose. And so, with an early snowfall swirling about her, she set out to dig her two rows of tuberose bulbs and store them safely in the basement for the winter. Of course things don’t always go as planned, in the garden or life, and what happens next will ring familiar to many gardeners – and parents. Read her story at npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17654817&ps=rs. (Dec. 2009)

Tuberoses at Versailles and Around the Globe

        Our good friend Wesley Greene is a garden historian and the lead interpreter at Williamsburg’s Colonial Garden. He writes:
        “The single tuberoses that I got from you have been magnificent. One of the joys of working at Colonial Williamsburg is that I get to meet gardeners from all over the world. I’ve met people from Mexico who tell me, ‘Oh yes, tuberoses grow all around our village,’ and the other day I met a couple girls from Iran who tell me it is a very popular plant where they live, commonly used at weddings and funerals.
        “Then I ran across this bit of information from 17th century France: Saint Simon, a critic of much that went on in the court of Louis XIV, observed that when the tuberoses were in bloom at the Grand Trianon at Versailles, the fragrance was so overpowering the entire court was obliged to retreat indoors. That must have been quite some show!” (Dec. 2008)

What Do You Plant at an Icon of Mid-Century Modernism?

        In a recent article in Preservation magazine celebrating Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House, a sleek, glass-walled icon of Modernism set in the desert near Palm Springs, California, my eyes were drawn to the minimalist planting outside one of the famous floor-to-ceiling glass panels. Looking more closely at the tufts of low, grassy foliage arrayed in geometric precision, I could see a few small, white, crocus-like flowers. You guessed it, white rain lilies. (Aug. 2008)

“Little Pots on the Front Porch” – Rain Lilies in the Early 1900s

        The revered Elizabeth Lawrence in her classic A Southern Garden of 1942 writes with enthusiasm about pink rain lily, Zephyranthes grandiflora:
        “It is one of the hardiest species and is said to winter safely in Philadelphia. As a child I thought of the little rose-colored lilies as the sign and seal of summer. My grandmother in Georgia grew them in her garden, and my grandmother in West Virginia grew them in little pots on the front porch.
        “Those in my garden [in Raleigh] came from Georgia. They have been with me so long and have increased so much that their bloom makes a sea of pink. The season is in June, but there is scattered bloom in the late summer and even to the end of September. The flowers are large, to over three inches long, on ten-inch stems. They open out flat at midday and close in the afternoon; this is a characteristic of the genus. The shimmering leaves are grass green.” (March 2008)

Fragrance Fit for a President: Thomas Jefferson and Tuberoses

        If you still haven’t tried our fabulous, spring-planted tuberose bulbs, maybe Thomas Jefferson can sway you. Allen Lacy, in his inspiring 1998 book The Inviting Garden, writes:
        “Jefferson evidently loved Mexican tuberoses, recording in his garden notebook on April 18, 1806, that he had planted twenty-four double ones from M’Mahon [a famous Philadelphia nurseryman]. They started flowering on August 12, and the following January Jefferson placed a larger order with M’Mahon, who wrote back on February 25 that the shipment would be delayed: ‘When the weather becomes more mild I will send you some double Tuberose roots, but as they are extremely impatient of frost, it would be hazardous to send them at present.’” (Nov. 2007)

They’re Also Great in Pots!

        Most of our spring-planted bulbs are as easy and fun to grow in pots as they are in the garden.
        We always advise growing tuberoses in pots in the North to give them maximum heat and sun. They’re often especially happy on decks and paving where pots can get too hot for other plants. When they bloom, set pots wherever you can best enjoy their fragrance – even nestled among the plants out in your garden wherever you need a bit of added interest. In winter, simply store pots dry inside. Then when spring returns, bring them back outside to bloom for a second year. (After that they‛ll be so crowded you‛ll need to repot them.)
       We grow all of our elephant ears in pots, too, so we can soak them daily without wasting water and drenching their neighbors. ‘Illustris’ and ‘Fontanesii’ thrive when their saucers are constantly full of water, or grow them in glazed pots without drainage holes.
       Rain lilies can be great in pots, too, even in the North. See oldhousegardens.com/pinkRain.asp for one Wisconsin gardener’s 100-year-long success story with the pink ones.
       Tempted? Got pots? To get started, order a few bulbs now! (2005-06 catalog)

Our Tuberoses Bloom at Mount Vernon and National Arboretum

        Our ravishingly fragrant 2004 Spring-Planted Heirloom Bulb of the Year continues to gain converts. This spring we delivered bulbs of ‘Mexican Single’ tuberose to both Mount Vernon, where it is historically appropriate, having been grown in America since colonial days, and the US National Arboretum in Washington, DC. We’re honored! (April 2005)

Erna Says, “Plant Some Tuberoses This Spring!”

        Our good customer Erna Hassebrock of Hot Springs, Arkansas, writes:
        “I was very pleased with your ‘Mexican Single’ tuberoses. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the folks who produce those fabric softener sheets could copy this delightful fragrance? I smelled it every time I went to the back of the yard and again when I returned. Thanks, thanks, thanks! I am old enough not to get very excited about plants but this one really surprised me and fulfilled its description.” (March 2005)

Did You Know Fragrant Tuberoses Make Great Cut Flowers?

        Our good customer Judy Sanders of Montgomery, Texas, writes:
        “I cut several stems of tuberose and they lasted a full two weeks in the house. Every few days I’d trim a bit off the stems and refresh the water. And, as outside, the fragrance was stronger in the early evenings. We really enjoy this bulb!”
        Big bunches of freshly-cut tuberoses are sold today in Mexican street markets, as they probably were in Aztec street markets long ago. Plant your own this spring and you can enjoy a fragrance prized by gardeners for a thousand years. (Jan. 2005)

“It’s Hard to Believe They’ve Been Overlooked So Long!”

        Our good customer Marilyn Sydow of Columbus, OH, writes:
        “Your ‘Mexican Single’ tuberoses’ fragrance is incredible. They have bloomed for at least a month now, and the fragrance at night has been so intense that I could smell them in the front yard though the pot is in the back. It’s hard to believe that these bulbs have been overlooked for so long. Thanks for bringing them back!” (2004-05 catalog)

Celebrate Our Aztec Tuberoses with Antique Chocolate

        The tuberose, our 2004 Spring-Planted Heirloom Bulb of the Year, is one of the Aztecs’ great gifts to the world. Chocolate is another. And now you can taste chocolate the way it was enjoyed back in the days of the Aztecs!
        A sign at Zingerman’s, our local, world-class deli, caught my eye: “Antique Chocolate.” I picked up a bar and read the label: “Xocoatl . . . was introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century, who had learned the process from the marvelous Meso-American people. Since 1880, the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto continues to make this chocolate with the same ingredients and methodology that was passed on from the ancient Aztec civilization.”
        I had never tasted chocolate like this before! Enraptured, I sampled another old-style chocolate from Oaxaca, Mexico. Zingerman’s description fits both well: “The texture is coarse, with little sugar crystals exploding in your mouth and a dark, subtle, cinnamon and smoke flavor.”
        For your own taste, visit our friends at zingermans.com and enter either Bonajuto or Oaxacan in their search box. Tell them we sent you, and enjoy! (April 2004)

Tender Rain Lilies Thrive for a Century in Zone-4 Wisconsin

        Although pink rain lilies, Zephyranthes grandiflora, aren’t hardy beyond zone 8, Julie Monroe and her family have been enjoying them in zone-4 Wisconsin for a century or so. Her bulbs came originally from her Great-Aunt Irene and before that from Irene’s mother. “They thrive on neglect,” Julie says. “The only thing I am careful about is to take the pots inside before the first freeze.” She stores them dry in pots in the basement all winter, brings them back outside in the spring, and they just get better every year. For the whole story and Julie’s tips, or to try a few rain lilies yourself, click here. (Jan. 2004)

Reblooming Tuberoses

        Our good customer Donna Boyles of Pownal, Maine, writes:
        “I have one of last year’s double ‘Pearl’ tuberoses in bloom in my living room and cannot believe the beautiful fragrance that pervades the house! It bloomed last fall, I left it to rest and repotted all three bulbs with many bulblets attached in February, watered and fertilized heavily and now have at least 30 buds.” (2000-01 catalog)

No Need to Wait for a Tuberose Revival

        Regarding tuberoses and fashion, I couldn’t have said it better than F.F. Rockwell did in his 1927 Book of Bulbs:
        “It is hard to understand why this really excellent summer-flowering bulb, with its permeating fragrance . . . should have fallen off, as it has, in its popularity. Possibly some day it will meet with a ‘revival,’ as have so many of the other flowers of ‘Grandmother’s garden;’ but those who grow things for their intrinsic value, rather than because they may happen to be ‘in style,’ need not wait for that day.” (1996 catalog)

For articles on other topics, see our main Newsletter Archives page.