Hymenocallis litorallis

[Heinie]

This is one of my Hymenocallis litorallis flowering.



This is another plant

[Maggi Young]

If a South African house brick is approximately the size of a British house brick, then the flowers on your Hymenocallis are bigger than I thought they would be, Heinie!

[Gail]

Lovely Heinie, does it have a good fragrance?

[Heinie]

Maggie,

Well spotted. If my memory serves me right then the house bricks in the UK are a little smaller than in South Africa. The dimensions of the bricks you see are 65mm x 215mm. To return to the gardening side of things  the flower has a diameter of 38mm in the center and 175mm across.

Gail,

It has a slight fragrance but not as pronounced as the Hymenocallis advance which is the one with a deeper center cup. It should also flower in the next two or three weeks. Here is a photo from last year.


The best fragrance is the Ismene Sulphur Queen which fills a large room with a lovely fragrance. This one will open some flowers next week. I attach a photo of the Ismene Sulphur Queen when it flowered last year. You should be able to get the fragrance at this distance. 




I will post them when they flower soon.

[Gail]

Lovely Heinie, I had Sulphur Queen but didn't look after her properly.  Must try again...

[Rogan]

Wonderful flowers aren't they Heinie? I would love to obtain seeds / bulbs of one of the parent species Ismene amancaes, which has bright yellow flowers.

This is off topic, but my Hippeastrum calyptratum bulbs are about to produce their own crop of bizarre flowers for the year - talk about weird colours and strong acrid scents!

This is what I have to look forward to:

[Gail]

Amazing looking flower Rogan - according to the Pacific Bulb Society (http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/HippeastrumSpeciesOne) it smells of burnt plastic??

[Rogan]

It has a very strange smell indeed Gail, which must be irresistable to bats as it is purportedly a bat-pollinated flower. It has other strange habits for a bulb, like growing on trees as an epiphyte.

This brings to mind Pamianthe peruviana, also an epiphyte which bears spectacularly large white, scented flowers superficially similar to those of Ismene and Hymenocallis - do you grow this one too Heinie?

[Heinie]

Rogan,

No, I do not grow Pamianthe peruviana but it may still cross my path one day for a lift home.