Can't answer your question but have one of my own about crinums. Being in a zone alot colder than yours I grow my crinum powelli in a container; it goes outside for the summer than spends winter indoors. I find that the leaves are very floppy and sprawl all over. Is this natural for this plant or should they be more turgid like an amaryllis?

My milk & wine crinums are blooming already also. The of crinums, at least mine, tend to be much more floppy than amaryllis. I assume that it normal. Crinums are not grown in my area much, the few I've seen a bit farther south are floppy like mine. This year though, 2 of the 3 blooming flower scapes on my milk & wine are flopping as well. Normally they don't. Maybe I need to fertilize a little or something, I've never bothered before. My solid white crinum flowers aren't drooping.

Honestly, I'm guessing it is just the weather.....I grow mine in pots and I already have had 3 scapes on my Crinum delagoense (2 bulbs), I have a scape about to open in the next day on my Crinum lugardiae and in another week I'll have one open on my C. ligulatum. We have been very, very warm here for the past few weeks and they were all growing in the garage so had to go outside.......fertilizer will get you the extra scape and some extra flowers per scape I imagine, but not sure it can rush mother nature in terms of timing of bloom....I should say I fertilize heavily since I grow in pots. Glad to hear they are doing so well for you though.....whatever you used I'd keep going with it :o) Dan

I grow my crinums in pots also and my Crinum Carolina Beauty has sent up a scape. Thanks for the tip of fertilizing heavily.

I was out and about this morning and saw other milk and wines blooming around town. So the earlier bloom must be the weather, but my plants look healthier than almost any I saw, so the fertilizer can't be hurting either. I truly love these plants and want to learn all I can about getting the very best from them.

ngrahm, very many crinums have very long, very floppy foliage. The leaves on my milk and wines can be 3 or 4 feet long in the summer, and they tend to get rusty spots on them. Some years, I cut the very bad looking leaves off or back by half just to keep them looking neater. They are in a large mixed perennial border, about halfway back, so the plants in front of them help to disguise the messy foliage too.

I ordered two Mrs. James Henry bulbs last year because I read that their foliage is shorter and neater. So far, it is, but, of course, they have not bloomed yet.