I bought this a few years ago and have lost the tag. Any ideas?
This is the new spring growth.

Hmm, I would like to venture and say it's a Cardiocrinum... cause that's the bell this pic rings...

I would agree with you Calin, I did have photos of leaves of my Cardiocrinum giganteum but I don't have any on this computer. There are other Cardiocrinum species but C. giganteum is most commonly grown. I had one which was supposed to be Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense, it turned out to be Cardiocrinum cathayanum! I had two small offsets growing which I have not lifted and I know I should have, they survived in the ground in our harsh winter 2010/11. Maybe this year, if they grow, I will have to pot them up and give them care as it is a spectacular flower!

With luck I may still have a C. giganteum, at least it was alive last year but I found they need to be grown in pots in a cold greenhouse over winter here in order to mature and flower. Some I had in the ground disappeared. Two offsets I got from my first one which I bought took 4 and 5 years to flower, from seed you could be waiting an eternity.

This plant looks close to maturity, if it's about to flower it would be a good idea to put it in the ground so it can do it's thing and make offsets before it dies in the autumn. When it flowers you will get a better idea which species it is.

http://www.google.co.uk/search...

Very pretty foliage and it does look like Cardiocrinum.

For comparison, more images here: http://www.pacificbulbsociety....

Another possibility is C. cordatum var. glehniii, you can view an image of the leaves by clicking the link below the flower photo: http://www.plantdelights.com/C...

Currently there's only one photo of Cardiocrinum giganteum in the ATP database: Giant Lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum)

Thank you, Calin, Lin and Janet!!
I'm sure it is Cardiocrinum giganteum. I was at a lecture Dan Hinckley was giving and he was selling plants. Some of the pictures in this link are his http://www.google.co.uk/search...... He was taking about this and then I wanted to try it.
If you think the picture is good I can put it in the data base. I will have to read about this plant for more info now that I have the name.

Thank you again.

The picture is definitely good! If you're sure it's C. giganteum then definitely put it in the database, if the flowers prove otherwise it can be moved later.

I checked mine today, it's shooting up now but the leaves haven't unfurled. It is in the ground though, and it's survived 7 weeks of constant below freezing temperatures so it's done well, hoping it will flower soon! This spring has been extremely cold, more like winter but today promised spring although the temperature was only up to 7C it was sunny this afternoon and felt wonderful!

I agree, you should definitely put your photo in the database and as Janet said, when it blooms if it turns out to be a different one it can then be moved to the other location in the database!

I submitted the picture and thank you for all the help. In away I hope it doesn't bloom because I enjoy the foliage.

The flowers are just opening on this plant. I'm kind of excited about this.
,,

Wow. Can I join in the excitement?
Is it in the same pot or you transplanted to the garden?
Is it fragrant?
How many buds?
How tall?
I'm not good at ID-ing .. would this be the giganteum???

It 'looks' similar to one I bought as Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense, but the flowers are like Cardiocrinum cathayanum which open from the top downwards (mine did) according to a grower I once found which I now can't find. Take another photo when the flowers are fully open, these do look to be opening from the top downwards.

This photo of Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense is from the UBC botanical gardens, it's very different..

http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc...

I find many photos on the internet from supposedly reliable sources showing Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense looking like C. cathayanum. There's more than one contributor on DG showing some sort of uniformity of yunnanense, flowers having petals more evenly distributed.

I bought my bulb from a reliable source here, but I know they import some from China so it's likely some bulbs have been mixed up. I once found a site where the people seemed to know their Cardiocrinums and grew them commercially, from the information I got there I thought mine was actually C. cathayanum as the flowers opened from the top downwards and looked much different to giganteum.

They are highly scented Calin, mine didn't grow much more than 2 metres tall. They are supposed to need more time undisturbed to get a good height, if bought as a bare root bulb when not established and near maturity it has to re-establish so it won't gain it's full height. I had 13 flowers I think, and it made 10 seed pods full of seed which I sent to a couple of people and sowed a heap myself but I have only seen two very small seedlings from the lot which may not have survived! I do have two offsets still surviving in the ground but the leaves were not big so I need to lift those and pot them up to ensure they grow well. I was happy to see them survive all the same!

I found one photo of C. cathayanum which looks like mine, the second on this online shop showing yellow-greenish petals which are well split between the top and bottom petals and they probably whiten out anyway.

http://alpine-garden.com/goods...

This is mine flowering in 2010 .. the yellow-greenish pic I think I took in dull light, the other with sun but you can still see the colour tint to the petals.

I found a site with comparisons, it appears C. giganteum can open from the top down but I seem to recall the ones I had opening from the bottom upwards.

http://www.redhaugh.plus.com/G...

I am more convinced that mine is C. cathayanum.

This is the same plant as the above pictures and I was afraid to move it from the pot. I bought this either from Dan Hinckley at a Master Gardening lecture or at a plant sale at the Elizabeth Miller Library plant sale. The flowers are a green white but that may be because they are just starting to open. The flowers had some kind of out petal on them that fell off as the flower grew. The flowers are so fragrant.
Janet yours is a beauty. Would you remember how long the flowers lasted? We might go away this weekend. What do you think mine is? Hope mine sets seed. Where you able to germinate and grow from the seed?

The flowers on mine had to last at least two weeks, the first pic where not all flowers are open was 8th June, the last I took was 17th June where the first flower had dropped.



Bud on 28th May..



The second pic in my post above was 11th June. Seed pods just splitting was 5th November.

If you got yours from Dan Hinckley it could easily be something unusual, the petal formation from what I can see doesn't look uniform like Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense. Although it doesn't look to have as much reddish-brown colour as mine has, I think there must be slight variations. At the moment I'm leaning towards C. cathayanum.

I wouldn't try to move it from the pot, but when it dies back leave it to completely die off then check for offsets which should form around the bottom of the stem. The bulbs should be planted with the neck near or at the surface, you should find the offsets not far below the surface. The old bulb just won't be there, it turns into the flowering stem which dies. I would be very careful about leaving it outside in a pot over winter, I kept my C. giganteum in a greenhouse over winter until it looked like it was going to flower although the only offset I have left (from second offset from my original which flowered) has been in the ground in well drained soil since 2009, it's been too many years without flowering so good care will be needed to help the bulb develop. The one which I believe to be C. cathayanum offsets are in their third year in the ground and looking not too good, hence the need to lift them which I might have done this spring if we had a spring but winter went on for far too long so it didn't get done! I think they are usually sold in early spring so that is probably the best time to pot them up so they grow on quickly.

I did sow tons of seed in a large seed tray which I left under a large horse chestnut tree, they are best not getting too much water in summer as seedlings and will take one to two seasons to show leaves as the bulb develops first, then the leaves but they have to be sown while fresh. I left mine outside to get natural weather conditions and I had two or maybe three seedlings, I think they were there this spring but when the seedlings are small they die back very quickly so it can take 4 to 5 years before you see any significant size change. The bulb feeds from the leaf so can only grow as much as the leaf has food for it, in ideal conditions that may be quicker but not in our climate. I got quite good germination from C. giganteum over two years from the original which I think flowered in 2000, I eventually put some survivors in the ground and they are still not very big plants! Hence the need to grow them with very good care to help boost their growth.

Thanks Janet. I will enjoy this, as it sounds like a long time before I will see this again.

Wow Janet
You do like this bulb/plant :)
Me too. But so far I've only had the pleasure of sowing lots of seeds and having lots of seedlings... No idea what I'm gonna do for the next 5-6-7-8 years...

I would add a 10 to that Calin!

Yes, I am very fond of them. I guess one could purchase a bulb every year then the intensive care could be left to someone else, but some being sold could still take a few years to flower if sold as a young bulb. I once had visions of my offsets creating a staggered yearly flowering and eventually getting a garden full of them, the last giganteum flowered in 2005 with 7 offsets varying from very small to promising. I didn't lift them for a couple of years, when I did there was one left, the one I put in the ground in 2009. I'm wondering if the bulb fly Merodon equestris snacked on the rest. I have high hopes of it flowering next year, that's nearly 9 years from an offset if it does! The first two offsets from the original flowered in their 4th and 5th years, maybe the weather conditions were more favourable then. I decided I would experiment with leaving them in the ground to save me work, and to see how they fared, we have had two very dry years as well as (several!) very cold years.

This is the offset from C. giganteum on 14th April this year when it burst into life, the leaves were probably this bronze colour because of the cold, they greened out.

Nice Janet. I saw a picture on the web that had a large grouping of these. So pretty. Wish you luck.

Thought I would show off the seed pods.

Oh wow,... you had some bizi-biz (busy bees) around there!