Hiya either HOUZZ is being dimwitted or (much more likely)I am being totally thick but having difficulty sending email address so here you are:

suzangreenfingers@hotmail.com

send me your (address and I will do (surprise?) trade.

cheers, Suzy X

Got it Camp will email you later this evening, you can delete your response if you want to to.

Annette

CAMP, did you get my email, if not check your junk mail.

Annette

Did the seed work for anyone, especially after being stored awhile? I failed first few attempts then learned how to get some success, both with Cardiocrium giganteum v giganteum and v yunnanese. My seed looked just like yours with the std variety having lighter colored seed.

I recently posted some information on starting seed.

Both types bloomed the same year so I could directly compare. Mine were in quite shady locations. The leaf shapes differ and the Yunnan variety is a little smaller. It can get 12', whereas the std variety 14'. In lower light and a tub mine Yunnanese has been 9+' so far.

Cardiocrium giganteum v yunnanese

Cardiocrium giganteum v giganteum

Intenet photo I found below shows the potential of this fine species. Notice the plant location. It's a very sunny location. And there are deciduous leaf plants around it. Notice the leaf shadows. They are above and slightly to the rear towards the Lady.

This clever or very lucky gal planted both.this and the second clump on the right on the northeast side of the bush(es I bet). Thus, ot gets morning sun when it is cooler and afternoon shade when the day heats up. If one didn't notice this they would wrongly assume to grow this wonder in full sun to get this ~14' optimal result. You know she must have been really pushing fertilizer too!

Cardiocrinun bulbs sprout really early, for me mid Feb. So her clumps got full sun in cool weather. Then it was shaded by leaves as the summer approached. The way the plant is shaped, those upper stalk leaves get full sun and won't risk wind breakage as much as the lower leaf shape and size. So they might be more sun tolerant than the lower leaves. If nothing else the smaller size high location is where better air movement occurs to cool them.

With all that extra sun up there, bet those leaves drive the fuller height potential, with the big bulb helping feed energy and nutrients. And I bet those big fat bulbs really warm too when they sprout, like it has been shown a Shunk Cabbage does here in the PNW (by several degrees).

In nature this plant grows fast, in an early season, in a cool climate location, at a higher elevation. If the bulb didn't heat it's hard to explain its growth rate otherwise. Mine sprout and grow fast way before much else does in our yard. That big bulb obviously metabolizes (burns) a lot of stored carbohydrate and/or fat so it in fact must deal with potential heating. If such a bulb bolted to bloom in hot weather soil bet it would abort by overheating!

We moved in Feb 2016 and I took bulb clusters of both varieties with us. The same Yunnanese pictured here bloomed in the transfer tub a few months later! With the extra light energy in the new north wall side location it also had more flowers.

I didn't get it planted last fall. Surprizing the heck out of me, there's two large pineapple sized bulbs in the cluster showing in the tub. Looks like it is planning to bloom the 3rd year in a row, this time maybe with two stalks? Finally learning how to grow it well. I also casted the seed to make a patch.

My Yunnan variety's flowers are not as elegantly shaped as the standard variety. However, the flowers are highly fragrant, have more maroon color striping, and the cultivar is quite perky and reliable at blooming, as expected. It has the characteristic dark blackish flower stalk, which was darker in my sunnier location, as also expected. My clone doesn't had the red flushing in the leaves that some others have. Oughta swap a bulb with someone on year to two so that we have both.

Caution when growing in lower light. I actually started with two Yunnan bulbs. All three of my plants grew great and bloomed the same year due to a culture secret. One of the Yunnan plants gave alot of viable seed, but only a tiny offset bulb or two that didn't survive (slugs?). Marginally more sun in the others gave better response in offset bulb production.

I have not seperated them because I want to see what a natural clump does. All the pictures I see on the internet are show what looks like one bulb plants. With my two bulb plant, If not getting two flower stalks the same year, I expect to instead get a next year bloom, without lag year between.

My goal is a 6" x 15' "patch of heaven: in continuous yearly bloom. Have just the spot saved for it.

Today is March 4th. We are two weeks away from the last typical frost free morning. The Cardiocrinum giganteum v yunnanense clump that has bloomed 3 years in a row looks like is doing it again this year!

It is still on the large tub for spring planting within a week. The brown stem is the base of last year's 9' flower stalk.

--Click photo to view--

There are two nearly pineapple sized mature bulbs shown by my hand and seven offshoot baby bulbs already showing. I have a large hand and wear size men's XL gloves.

The two largest bulbs are offspring from the mother bulb that bloomed 2 years ago. Both bulb's outer scales are flairing out at the top and already have a longer stem than typical for an immature bulb, so they are poised to bolt upwards into bloom.

This growth pattern thus is as an expanding clump capable of producing flowering bulbs alternate years from opposite sides of the clump and eventually multiple flower stalks. Thus the patch might bloom every year!

These sure are dynamic powerful plants! They seem to be true dynamos of the lily/hosta world!

It lightly froze here last night, but the soil around them in tbe tub was not looking frozen at all. In contrast, the ground surface in our yard as a whole is lightly frozen down to 1/2" or more! Thus, the Cardiocrinum must be generating heat from active metabolism much like our native skunk cabbage does. Heat production helps explaining early rapid growth and resistance to near freezing temperatures for many early spring bulbs.

With skunk cabbage the heat is believed also helps drive odor from the plants perhaps attacting pollinators to their flowers and/or as a defense to help repel slugs, animals or insects from eating them!