Sharing and Planting Milk and Wine Crinum Lilies

There are lots of varieties of crinum lilies, which are the largest plants in the amaryllis family.  The Milk and Wine variety grows very well in Texas and Oklahoma gardens from bulbs where they can get full to part-shade.  Although I have relatives in California who have grown them in pots with the leaves overflowing the sides.  Healthy plants will have lots of long leaves and a fully grown plant can get up to shoulder high.  The plants often bloom directly after a summer or autumn rain, which is why some people nickname them rain lily.

Mine are heritage plants as divisions passed down through family generations.  It originated from my father-in-law's mother yard and he gave one to his wife's mother.  It was from the second Grandma that gave our original bul to my husband after we moved into our house.  His Grandma also gave one to my Grandma (they were best friends) many years before we met.  My Grandma planted it next to her front porch.  my husband planted ours in the front corner of our house, where it spent many years until we had to have our house re-leveled.  I have shared out many bulb divisions to friends, siblings, and now nieces.

If you have Milk and Wine (or other types) crinum lilies, you can divide them to share with others.  When you see more than 5 stems, you may divide bulbs to get more plants or you can wait until the group is about a foot in diameter.  When you divide the bulbs, you may find baby bulbs (nicknamed pups) around the main bulb that can be anywhere from ping-pong ball size to the size of a softball.  If you are mailing bulbs to others, I suggest you send ping ball size nested in shredded newspaper to save mailing costs.   You can divide them in early spring after you see green shoots.  The bulbs you give away or replant should be put in the ground within a week or tow.  Most of the other bulbs I give away are softball or baseball size.  I tend to put the bigger bulb back in the hole where I dug out the division.  

Do not let them go too long before dividing, when we moved our plant from the front of the house to the backyard, it took hours and very deep digging to get it all out.  The mother bulb had grown to the size of a basketball!  The bulbs grow out and down.  Unlike houseplant amaryllis, which like to have 1/3 to 1/2 of the bulb above soil-level, crinums need the entire bulb underground with only the stem sticking out.  Nor does it like to be planted too deep like most bulbs, which are supposed to be planted 2 to 3 times as deep as the bulb is tall.  

Plant Milk and Wine crinum lilies in full sun to get the most blooms. Be sure the hole is deep enough to completely cover the ball portion of bulb with dirt and where stem sticks up out of the soil - plant no deeper than size of the ball part of bulb. If planting more than one bulb, plant them at least two feet apart to allow for spreading as the plant grows. Water tham slightly each day for first two weeks to help them settle in.  After that, the plants should be fine with normal watering or rain. Do not overwater as too much can cause the bulbs to rot.  Replants may not bloom until the following year.  Multiple blooms come at top of plant (in summer thru autumn) after plant is over  a foot high.  

Besides the care listed above, know that the long leaves will die over winter but do not remove the dead leaves until new green growth can be seen coming out from the soil in early spring. The old dead leaves serve as winter cover for the bulb. When cleaning off dead leaves, you may notice that the original single stem has become many as the plant grows.  Toss the dead foliage in the compost heap, if you have one,

Although getting theses bulbs as a share from family, friends, or neighbors is the best way to know they will grow in your garden; you can buy bulbs to try in garden or pots.  Softball-size Milk and Wine bulbs sell for up to $25 each on ebay!  Other crinums can be bought for as little as $8 on ebay but "vintage varieties" sometimes can be found in southern nurseries as special "vintage" or "heritage" local offerings for less.