Crinum Stars and Stripes

[Heinie]

Ezeiza,

Are you serious about the virus? I am going to destroy the pot, plant and growing medium right away. I do not need viruses amongst my bulbs and Clivias. Thanks for the warning.

[Ezeiza]

Heinie, just put it apart until you see new leaves' tips. If they develop plain green, the plant is healthy.

I received years ago a whole collection of them, and they were gorgeous until I realized they were all virused although there were no apparent signs of disease. Only at the mentioned stage it was visible.

[jshields]

Alberto, I agree.  I've seen some old plantings of crinums in Southern California that were thoroughly virused and barely could form scapes.  I prefer to propagate crinums from seeds, but you can't very easily re-create complex hybrids that way. 

Crinum 'Super Ellen' was planted out in the garden here last summer, and it is coming up again now.  We shall have to wait to see if it blooms this year.  It was a nice size offset when I received it.  It is apparently as hardy as I have heard.   That is delightful to see!

Jim

[JoshY46013]

Almost anything you buy commercially in the Amaryllidaceae family is virused, I would just steer clear unless you get them from trusted friends or other growers. Many Crinum were pass a long plants, especially in the US which almost guarantees virus!  While the plants are beautiful a virus can take over your entire collection in one season.

I wish it were possible to eradicate virus and maybe one day it will be, I've seen a guy that is experimenting with heat treatment for extended periods of time, maybe this will bring something to the table that will be realistic for anyone to do!

[Ezeiza]

Hi Jim, great to hear of you. My hybrid Crinum collection came from a well known bulb merchant from Texas that was simply not aware of the virus in the plants.One of the reasons is that in certain countries people fertilize excessively with high nitrogen fertilizers that produce darker green leaves which mask the virus stripes. As a side effect high nitrogen make the plants more attractive to sucking insects.

In recent years I have seen photos of new hybrids and among them a heavily virused one that was introduced as a pretty variegated form.