Reminiscent of Ellen, and Not Her
The Claude Davis is a sight to behold, and the first thing anybody says about it is that it looks like an ‘Ellen Bosanquet’.
That’s fair, and it’s also where the resemblance stops. Late May through mid-June it offers solid stalks and beautiful dark pink blooms with a pleasing fragrance. Where Ellen goes wine-red and bell-shaped on a thick stem, Claude runs a slender, strong stem and a richer, warmer pink — and holds that color even in full sun, which not every pink crinum manages.
A must for any traditional Southern landscape. This is a reliable bulb and a vibrant addition to a garden that needs something in the June gap.
A Louisiana Nurseryman
I want to be careful with this one, because there is less here than I’d like.
The account you’ll find in the trade — Plant Delights carries it, and it’s the fullest version out there — is that Crinum ‘Claude Davis’ is a selection from a Louisiana nurseryman named Claude Davis, and that it was reportedly a seedling of Crinum ‘Cape Dawn’.
Note that word. Reportedly. That hedge is in the source, and I’m keeping it, because the alternative is me telling you a parentage that the people who know crinums best won’t commit to. I have not found a date, a town, or anything about Claude Davis the man beyond the fact that he was a nurseryman in Louisiana and that this plant carries his name. The Pacific Bulb Society, which is scrupulous about naming crinum breeders, doesn’t have an entry for it at all.
I’d also mention that ‘Cape Dawn’ itself is not a settled quantity — PBS notes real confusion around it, with one plant having been sold under multiple names and another plant sold as ‘Cape Dawn’ entirely. So the parentage claim rests on a parent whose own identity is contested. That’s the situation. I’m not going to build a Louisiana origin story on top of it.
What’s solid: it’s a named selection, it’s old enough to have gotten around, it’s a distinct and good plant, and somebody’s name is on it.
Tougher Than It Looks
Here’s the practical surprise, and the reason I keep it in the catalog next to a dozen other pink crinums.
It’s cold hardy. It grows well in zone 8 and it will also grow in zone 7. And Jenks Farmer — who has done more real cold-hardiness observation on crinums than anybody — reports it proven in places like Washington, D.C., the northern parts of Ohio, and up to 2,000 feet in West Virginia.
Ohio. A crinum. I’d have called that a typo if it came from anywhere else.
I’m not going to promise you Ohio from a farm in East Texas — I haven’t tested it and I won’t sell you a zone I can’t stand behind. But that is a real report from a serious grower, and if you’re on the cold edge of crinum country and you’ve been told the whole genus is off the table, Claude Davis is the conversation worth having.
The Honest Problem: Foliage
I’ll tell you the flaw before you find it yourself in August.
The foliage gets rough late in the season. It can reach 30 inches but it makes a low mound, and by July it starts picking up rust spots and looking tired. Jenks cuts his Claude back to the ground in August and doesn’t apologize for it.
So plant accordingly. This is a perfect plant to mix with things that look great later in the summer — put it where something else takes over when Claude quits. The low, compact foliage makes it unusually easy to nestle into other plantings: blue salvia, daylilies, asters, late-flowering hibiscus, or a big grass like maiden grass. Anything that peaks in August is doing Claude a favor.
That’s not a knock. Most crinums have untidy foliage. This one just has a shorter fuse, and the fix is a neighbor.
The Best Cut Flower Crinum
The flowers come in late May and June, about three feet up on slender stems, and they hold high and strong. Light, sweet fragrance.
Jenks calls it the best cut flower crinum outright. Between the strong slender stem and the color holding in the vase, I understand why. If you’re the kind of gardener who grows things to bring inside, this is a stronger candidate than its price suggests.
Planting & Care
Zones: Grows well in zone 8; will also grow in zone 7. Reports of considerably colder success exist — see above.
Depth: Neck at or barely above soil level in most southern gardens, in well-drained soil.
Sun: Thrives in high, light shade through full sun. That shade tolerance is worth noting — it’s more flexible than most of the genus.
Blooms: Late May through mid-June, roughly three feet.
Offsets: Claude offsets easily. Bulbs quickly grow small pups around the base, which means in a few years you’ll have some to give away.
Moving: Don’t. Plant it where it stays.
A Name Without a Story
I’ve written a lot of these pages, and the ones I like least are the ones where I have to say “I don’t know.”
But that’s the truthful shape of this plant. There was a man in Louisiana. He had a nursery, and a good eye, and he pulled a seedling out of a bed and decided it was worth keeping. Somebody attached his name to it. And then the bulb did what crinum bulbs do — got enormous, dug in, refused to die, and quietly outlived every record of the man who found it.
That’s most of what we’re doing here, honestly. We’re growing the last surviving evidence that certain people once paid attention.
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