If You Can Only Grow One
People ask me some version of this question at every talk: if I could only plant one crinum, which one? I don’t even pause anymore. ‘Mrs. James Hendry.’ Then they ask why, and I get to spend the next ten minutes on my favorite subject.
The Breeder and the Lady
‘Mrs. James Hendry’ came out of the golden age of Florida plant breeding around the turn of the last century, from the hands of Henry Nehrling — a horticulturist whose crosses still furnish half the great Southern gardens. He named this one for a prominent Fort Myers family’s matriarch, and a hundred-plus years later the name is still traveling over garden fences, which is the only immortality that matters in this business.
What Makes It the One
Three things. First, the color: a soft blush pink that reads almost white at noon and glows at dusk, elegant in a genus that can run loud. Second, the fragrance — sweet, carrying, and constant; from the first May stalk onward it perfumes the evening garden for months. And third, the season, which is where ‘Mrs. James Hendry’ leaves the rest of the family behind: she doesn’t bloom and quit. She blooms in waves — flush after flush from late spring through the fall, clear to Thanksgiving in Zone 8 and until a hard freeze farther south. Most flowers give you a week. This one gives you two seasons.
Growing Notes
Treat her like crinum royalty, which is to say: barely at all. Full sun for the most waves — the crinum math is simple, more sun means more foliage, more foliage feeds the bulb, and a fed bulb blooms and multiplies. Plant with the neck at the soil line, two to three feet apart, water in deeply, and mulch. She’s cold-hardy, drought-proof once established, and will hold the bed together while you’re on vacation. Expect the usual crinum sulk the first year after planting — foliage, few or no flowers — and never cut that foliage down while it’s green. The show starts in earnest year two and improves every year you resist the urge to fuss.
A Flower with a Long Memory
Scott Ogden ranked her among the finest crinums in Garden Bulbs for the South, and every old Gulf Coast garden I’ve hunted seems to agree — the clumps turn up beside porches three owners removed from whoever planted them, still perfuming June like it’s their job. Plant one where you sit in the evenings. In a few years, someone will ask you over the fence what that fragrance is, and you’ll get to pass the name along one more time.
We grow ‘Mrs. James Hendry’ on the farm and offer bulbs as digs allow — browse the crinum collection, or email info@southernbulbs.com to be first in line when she’s available.
Remember — you’re planting a story, and these bulbs are for a lifetime. Sign up for the Southern Bulb Co. newsletter for what’s blooming each week and the Weekly Special — www.southernbulbs.com