Eucomis

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net
Tue, 12 Jul 2005 18:04:14 PDT
I'm fascinated by all of these Eucomis stories. I've never been able to keep
Eucomis alive outside for more than a few years. Even in relatively
protected sites here the spring comes when they do not reappear.

I'm convinced that when I was younger the winters were colder. You young
'ins don't remember the blizzard of '59 when I had to trudge through six
foot snow banks to get to school and the creek froze...

Oops! That's another story. 

Maybe I should try again. That Ellen in Oswego of all places is able to grow
these outside just baffles me. Here, even against a wall they eventually
disappear. 

I wish someone would post a photo of a mature blooming Eucomis pole-evansii
to the wiki. I have grown this plant for years as a pot plant and it has yet
to bloom. How tall is it when it blooms? Old accounts say six feet (Col.
Grey: "over seventy inches"). That I would like to see!

And the stories of the floppy inflorescence sometimes seen in these plants:
years ago I received some huge bulbs which were supposed to be Eu.
Pole-evansii; when they bloomed, they had purple-pink flowers. They were
enormous: each inflorescence must have weighed a pound or two and was as big
as a base-ball bat. They were so big that they could not support themselves
and flopped badly. They reminded me of huge corn-dogs (for those of you not
deeply into the more refined aspects of American cuisine, corn-dogs are hot
dogs - frankfurter sausages - coated in corn meal batter, fried, and served
on a stick).  

Jim McKenney
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the spiffy hair-do
plant has so far refused to persist in my garden in any of its several
forms.  




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