All the Dirt on Gardening

In some parts of the US, a Cemetery Lily is a Peace Lily but in the South, if someone talks about a Cemetery Lily they mean a Crinum Lily. Crinums stand up to heat, drought, rain and most soil types, all the while blooming for decades without care. Like other Amaryllis, Crinums have strap-like leaves and produce multiple, fragrant flowers on each stalk. During their heyday in the 1920s and 1950s they were planted around homesteads and graveyards and many of those are still thriving.  Originally from Africa, Central and South America, they are only cold hardy as far north as zone 7 where we live. Even here they can be vulnerable in cold years so apply a protective layer of organic mulch. Crinums do not need to be divided,  Bulbs planted now will bloom next year. I’m tucking some in this month to give them an early start in warm soil.  Crinum Lilies want full to part-sun. They do not need fertilizer but will not be harmed by receiving some nutrients if you are ferti...

Crinum lilies are not lilies at all. Just as rain lilies, crinums are amaryllis.   Called graveyard lilies, country lilies, criniums, and by their variety name Milk and Wine. These gigantic Crinum bulbs from the southern hemisphere have migrated to the U.S. over many generations making their way into southerners' hearts and gardens.   Crinum bulbs from Dutch Touch in Olathe Kansas Wilfred Wiering of Dutch Touch said, "The ones we sold at the Tulsa Home and Garden Show are Crinum powelii. They grow in the field in Kansas City where I live. I do not fertilize them but you'd have a better plant if you did."   Crinum bulbispermum is said to be the most cold-hardy and the parents of C. Powelii are C. bulbispermum and C. mooreii according to http://www.crinum.us/pow.htm  so I'm optimistic.   Crinums at an old home site from  A. L. Sisk at   http://www.crinum.us/   Their legend is large: Roundup won't kill the...