for the love of pineapple lilies: eucomis, with jenks farmer
I’M CRAZY ABOUT pineapple lilies, bulbs within the genus Eucomis. And although in my zone 5 backyard, they aren’t hardy, I can’t think about a rising season with out pots filled with them. In his South Carolina backyard and those he makes for design purchasers, Jenks Farmer can use them much more lavishly as perennials and beds and even meadows, so Eucomis (regardless of the place you backyard) had been the topic of our newest dialog.
Jenks Farmer, a longtime horticulturist and backyard designer, can also be a author with a number of books to his credit score and a Substack e-newsletter that I’m actually having fun with and extra to come back. He’s founding father of Jenks Farmer, Plantsman, which makes gardens for purchasers and can also be a mail-order nursery specializing in uncommon bulbs.
Learn alongside as you hearken to the Could 15, 2023 version of my public-radio present and podcast utilizing the participant beneath. You’ll be able to subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
Fast word: As a result of the longtime native radio-station engineer who information and edits my podcasts has been unwell, this one has some little bloopers the place Jenks and I interrupt one another and such … hopefully these gained’t spoil something for you. Thanks for understanding!
eucomis, with jenks farmer
Margaret Roach: Hello, Jenks. I’m so glad to speak to you once more as at all times. How are you?
Jenks Farmer: Hey, Margaret. I’m nice. I’m pleased to be right here and particularly to speak about Eucomis.
Once we began this sort of working dialog that we’ve had about Eucomis, I actually thought, “I don’t know that there’s sufficient about Eucomis.” They’re fairly easy. However it’s been enjoyable to delve into them and to listen to so much about the way you develop them as container vegetation.
Margaret: And so that you’re what, Zone 8 or some loopy outdated factor down there?
Jenks: We’re Zone 8.
Margaret: Yeah. I’m not. I’m positively not. I’m a 5. So only a backstory for folks, a month or so in the past, you and I did a “New York Instances” backyard column collectively, and it was type of like a love poem to pineapple lilies, however from the 2 very completely different locations and grown in two very other ways, as a result of yours don’t spend winter within the basement, do they, like mine do?
Jenks: No, no, we don’t have basements, Margaret.
Margaret: Oh, sorry. No basements. O.Okay.
Jenks: No basements. We’d have huge puddles of water in our basements. No, we’re very flat and really heat. So our, let’s see, even in April or at first of Could, our Eucomis are already up out the bottom most likely 6 inches.
Margaret: Wow, O.Okay. So that they’re pleased. And I imply, they’re native. There’s completely different species, however they’re native to completely different areas in Southern Africa, I consider. Sure?
Jenks: Sure. I might like to see them in Southern Africa. What I learn about them there, I’ve learn and finished a number of, oh, Google analysis, I suppose you’ll say, and skim by way of outdated books. I believe we have a tendency to think about South Africa as a scorching and dry place as a result of these are the long-lasting climates and ecozones there. However the Eucomis come from all completely different sorts of habitats, apparently, together with these scorching, dry habitats, but in addition some shady streamside locations.
Margaret: Proper, in uplands, some in greater altitudes; every kind of various environments. And I believe you advised me that. And a few of these locations are summer time—what do they name that? Summer season rainfall areas. So among the species can put up with being moist, which you don’t consider a bulb as liking that, proper? [Above, ‘John Treasure’.]
Jenks: Yeah. Most bulbs, nicely, not most bulbs, there are many bulbs that develop in moist areas, however the ones that we all know mostly, those that we love comparable to daffodils and tulip and even odder, extra specialised issues, have a tendency to love dry or typical backyard settings. And Eucomis do nice like that. Those that I develop, anyway. However I’ve had some that’ll develop in moist areas. And flooding locations are an necessary a part of our local weather. So to have a plant that thrives there may be at all times a reduction.
Margaret: Yeah, that’s for certain. And for me, within the different type of a local weather, to have a plant that’s very showy—and we must always discuss what we love about their seems to be. And although it’s not hardy, I can simply, yr to yr to yr—and I’ve had a few of my bulbs and their offsets many, many, a few years. These are as simple as say, cannas, as an example. These usually are not difficult. These usually are not going to provide you a tough time storing them, sleeping. And in order that’s what’s nice is that they’re simple regardless of, for each of us, regardless of our very completely different means of getting to deal with them. So it’s type of cool.
Jenks: Yeah. Straightforward and exquisite.
Margaret: Yeah. So let’s discuss stunning. I imply, they’re known as pineapple lilies, so what’s that about?
Jenks: Properly, you know the way widespread names are. I suppose in case you have a extremely good creativeness, they type of seem like a pineapple lily. Proper on the prime of the stalk of flowers [above, on E. bicolor, for instance], there’s just a little tuft of leaflets that appears like the highest of a pineapple. So the final flower description is a stalk that’s often a few half an inch round or so. And all up and down that stalk are tons of of buds, and every bud opens to a star-shaped flower. After which the highest of the stalk has this little tuft of hair.
Margaret: Proper. And so it seems to be just like the fruit of a pineapple, however a pineapple’s a bromeliad. And these usually are not bromeliads. I believe they’re associated to hyacinths. I don’t know, I get so confused with taxonomy as a result of it’s like, I believe they’re within the asparagus household, or I don’t know, or the order. I’m utterly misplaced. However I believe they’re cousins of hyacinths, aren’t they? They’re associated to hyacinths.
Jenks: I believe so.
Margaret: Yeah.
Jenks: Yeah, I believe so. However they would definitely be a hyacinth on steroids as a result of most of them, a lot of the ones that I develop, anyway, usually are not big, however their leaves will get to say 18 inches perhaps lengthy and the flower scapes go from 18 inches, a few of them as much as 28 or generally taller.
Margaret: Proper. And so these leaves—I imply, for me, one of many issues I like about them, or perhaps the factor I like, I don’t know what I like essentially the most. Anyway, there’s no accounting for our plant obsessions is there?
Jenks: No.
Margaret: However the first one I grew was that extra widespread one, Eucomis bicolor, the one which’s type of smelly [above]. It smells like rotting flesh or roadkill or one thing, to draw fly pollinators and so forth. However even it has, the leaves usually are not simply long-ish, however they’re freckled and they’re large, and so they’re simply stunning. It’s like this entire ruff of… this entire nest that the stem sits in. Have you learnt what I imply? It goes all the best way round. It’s not simply a few leaves. There’s so much. They usually’re simply stunning. So from the minute it type of leafs out, I’m proud of the plant. And a few of them much more so.
Jenks: I like your description of them sitting in a nest. And if you concentrate on the widespread houseplant, the chook’s nest fern—in a means, they give the impression of being just a little bit like that. The leaves are typically extra slender, however they’ve that very same type of tuft or that nest.
And the foliage can go from clear emerald inexperienced to darkish burgundy. There are even some which have a type of pale, golden solid. The foliage for me is basically necessary within the backyard due to that wider leaf. They’re 2, generally 3 inches large, and it’s slender, but it surely provides a number of distinction within the backyard, particularly with finer perennials and particularly with grasses.
Margaret: Proper, precisely. Grasses, once more, have an extended foliage, linear foliage, but it surely’s a lot finer usually. So this can be a broader and glossier and different-colored, completely different shades of inexperienced and purple and so forth. Yeah, they’re fairly implausible. And as I mentioned, I like all of the freckled and speckled ones. They’ve type of animal-skin patterns a few of them [above]. These are my favorites. And it may be on the stems. It may be beneath the leaves, I believe. They’re simply stunning, and so I type of like all the things about them. After which when the flowers are completed, they’re not likely completed, are they? I imply, technically they’re, however they nonetheless look good to me, don’t you assume?
Jenks: They lose the vibrancy of every particular person flower, however the type stays the identical [below, a faded flower stalk]. So you continue to have that lengthy sphere of texture within the backyard. For us, till the top of July or August, they give the impression of being superior. The larger ones particularly can type of get heavy and flop over after that. However one of many issues that makes them a extremely… sorry, you all.
Margaret: That’s O.Okay.
Jenks: One of many issues that makes them a versatile and notably helpful backyard plant is that you may minimize them at any level and so they’ll maintain that type and principally the colour for a month or extra.
Margaret: In order a minimize flower, you imply? Wow. O.Okay.
Jenks: Yeah.
Margaret: Yeah. That will be fairly dramatic trying.
Jenks: One of many issues that we do on our farm is to check new vegetation, and particularly issues that I need to use in backyard design, however I must know earlier than I put them in anyone’s backyard that they’re going to thrive. And over the previous eight years or so, there’s been a motion to make use of pineapple lilies as minimize flowers. And there’s been a number of work in growing new hybrids, new colours and new sizes, and ensuring that we don’t have any of that smelly one blended in for the minimize flowers.
Margaret: No, my favourite Eucomis bicolor’s not allowed.
Jenks: Properly, I imply, it is dependent upon the type of get together you’re taking minimize flowers to, I suppose.
Margaret: I suppose. Proper.
Jenks: So we began 4 or 5 years in the past testing a number of these cut-flower cultivars to see in the event that they had been garden-worthy, as a result of the 2 targets are sometimes not the identical when anyone’s doing…
Margaret: Boy, that’s for certain.
Jenks: Yeah. And also you get tricked I believe generally. When hybridizers are doing work for the cut-flower trade, they’re very centered on manufacturing. And that manufacturing typically takes place in greenhouses or in coated homes. So the flower doesn’t need to cope with the weather. They usually’re centered then on post-production and delivery, and never essentially on the genetics of one thing that will make a plant a fantastic backyard perennial.
Margaret: Proper.
Jenks: So we’ve had a number of enjoyable testing all these cultivars.
Margaret: Proper. Do you keep in mind the primary Eucomis you grew? Have you learnt which one it was?
Jenks: I believe it was most likely ‘Glowing Burgundy.’ [Above.]
Margaret: Oh, actually? O.Okay. In order that’s a Tony Avent of Plant Delights’ introduction from, I overlook when, however a variety of years in the past. And that type of shook issues up for the pineapple lilies. That was a dramatic plant. So type of describe what—and you employ that in gardens and so forth—type of describe it and what you do with it.
Jenks: So it was the primary of the cultivars that I used to be conscious of that had actually deep burgundy, type of mahogany, leaf. It has a shiny leaf after which the flower and the stalk has a burgundy solid to it. In order that distinction that I used to be speaking about earlier within the backyard is intensified when you have got a darkish colour that stands out in opposition to a number of greens. In order that one for me was an actual eye-opener. And the opposite profit is that it’s a extremely robust perennial, a minimum of in our local weather. So it multiplies nicely, and you may go from one bulb that’s…
Normally, the bulbs that I begin with are about… they match into your hand like just a little satsuma orange or one thing. And so you’ll be able to go from that. After which over time, these begin pushing aside little facet pups, and also you get a clump that’s ultimately as huge as say a daylily.
Margaret: And also you confirmed me an image [above] of it that nearly seems to be like a meadow. And also you look out into the space and there’s, as you mentioned, grasses and different extra anticipated vegetation. However then there’s this broad however lengthy, arching purple foliage of those ‘Glowing Burgundy,’ as an example. And it’s simply so completely different. It simply attracts your eye out into these stunning plantings which are type of wildish trying.
Jenks: I do a number of naturalistic plantings. And I’m afraid to name them meadows, as a result of meadows don’t actually accomplish that nice within the deep South.
Margaret: Proper.
Jenks: However in these naturalistic plantings, I need to see what I name some fireworks, some issues that allow folks know that this can be a cultivated planting—that that is intentional, that this can be a backyard. It’s not simply grasses and wildflowers I’m type of rising in a matrix.
In order that backyard that you just had been speaking about, we did a meadow utilizing native grasses like broomsedge. We even used little pine timber. So long-leaf pines are stunning once they’re small. They seem like these little tufts of emerald inexperienced strings. Then blended within the decrease stage was a tiny rain lily, tiny pink rain lilies. And so as to add the distinction, so as to add the fireworks to all of that had been these clumps of the burgundy, the ‘Glowing Burgundy’ pineapple lily.
Margaret: Yeah, it was actually… I imply, simply because once more it’s a plant that I’ve, however I’ve mine on the patio in a pot after which in my basement the remainder of the yr, it was like, “Actually, wow.” There it was simply stretching its legs and spreading and simply being so stunning on the market within the open. So I beloved that.
Jenks: I’m interested by how you retain them in your basement. Can we swap to that?
Margaret: Yeah.
Jenks: Do you’re taking a pot inside and let it go dormant and go away them within the grime?
Margaret: Yeah. So all people that I, all my as I might say, “funding vegetation”—issues that I’m going to have for a few years, or I hope to have for a few years that aren’t hardy right here and that aren’t adaptable to being grown on as a houseplant, as an example—I regularly dry them down and I’ll transfer them from out within the backyard to the porch, the place it has a roof so that they’re not getting rained on anymore. I allow them to type of dry earlier than the super-cold climate comes.
After which they’ll fall asleep, I’ll minimize them again, after which I’ll carry the pots of those just about dormant issues into the cellar. They usually simply sit there. I even stack them up. I imply, it’s like they don’t even appear to care. Some issues are more durable to try this with than others, however Eucomis after which voodoo lilies, which we each additionally love, the Amorphophallus, and I additionally love the Sauromatum [above], these are dead-easy to do, too, this fashion.
The opposite factor is you’ll be able to take them out of their pots. If you happen to had huge pots and also you don’t need to carry it down some stairs or one thing, you would unpot them and simply retailer them dry. However what I are likely to do is go away them of their pots after which each second yr or so I unpot them, as a result of they’ve taken up all of the area. They appear to multiply and so they’ve exhausted their sources within the confines of the pot. So I’ll type of divide them considerably after which choose same-sized bulbs and put these multi function pot. After which the smaller ones I’ll put in a unique pot with contemporary soil.
However they don’t appear to overlook a beat. I’ve by no means misplaced any. I’d by no means had decay or mildew or rot or something. And my basement will not be super-dry and it might probably go all the way down to 40, but it surely’s ceaselessly round 50 within the winter as a result of there’s a furnace down there. Not that it’s heating down there, however there’s just a little warmth from it. And it’s underground. However it’s an outdated, 140-year-old, home. It’s nothing fancy. So that they do actual nicely. They do actual nicely. And as I mentioned, I’ve had a few of them or their offsets for 15-plus years simply.
Jenks: Wow, that may be a nice funding plan, isn’t it?
Margaret: Properly, proper. And the canna is similar factor. I imply, for me, they’re rock arduous. They don’t rot. They’re wonderful. I’m just a little extra iffy with dahlias; I can have just a little little bit of mildew or loss. They’re just a little extra juicy. So you need to be just a little extra cautious, although it’s completely doable. I’m simply saying, the voodoo lilies, the cannas, and the Eucomis are simply—anyone may do it I believe. I believe they’re…
Jenks: We do some tropical bulbs like that. We’ll do among the greater dahlias and caladiums for certain. However these issues, you need to add just a little fungicide and it’s a little bit of a ache. So truthfully, I don’t do all of it that a lot as a result of they have a tendency to rot.
Margaret: Properly, as a result of your temperature, such as you mentioned, and also you don’t have a cellar, as an example, so that you don’t have a spot that stays say 40 one thing levels all winter, proper? You don’t have that type of a spot, do you?
Jenks: No, I might put them in a barn, which suggests the temperature fluctuates. [Below, ‘Tugela Jade.’]
Margaret: Proper, proper, proper. So yeah.
Jenks: And which may be a part of the issue. That could be the place we get a number of rot.
Margaret: I believe that, yeah, yeah, yeah. Attention-grabbing. Yeah. So I wished to simply ask about some others that you just actually like. I do know that you just develop a pair or completely different varieties which have inexperienced flowers. And also you’ve made me snort while you advised me as soon as that clients don’t need to purchase inexperienced flowers, and but they’re so beautiful. So what about these?
Jenks: Yeah. Properly, you realize the outdated gardener’s trope is that inexperienced flowers are for the jaded.
Margaret: Oh, expensive. Oh, boy.
Jenks: I’m sorry, I needed to say that. I discovered that from considered one of our mutual buddies, Glenn Withey, out on the West Coast.
Margaret: Oh, sure. Certain.
Jenks: I like pole-evansii [above] and pallidiflora. And I believe these two are literally the identical. Possibly one’s a subspecies of the opposite. There’s a brand new cultivar that’s known as ‘Inexperienced With Envy.’
Margaret: Oh.
Jenks: These are, they’re type of lime, limey, so that they’re brilliant. They stand out within the backyard, and particularly while you combine them with intense colours. I’ve some cornflowers or bachelor’s buttons that convey these blues, and I attempted them one yr. I used to be simply in a rush gardening. And so we’ve a giant row of inexperienced ones; it’s 75 toes of inexperienced flowers. And we’ve backyard excursions and I needed to get one thing in, so I used a pink salvia, and it appears like it might be a horrible mixture, however…
Margaret: Christmas, proper?
Jenks: … it’s actually cool. Yeah, just a little Christmas in July.
Margaret: Yeah.
Jenks: So I believe the greens are my favourite. There are a few different smaller burgundies that I like so much. One’s known as ‘Coco.’ It’s actually arduous to come back by. And ‘Maraschino Cherry.’ And people two final ones are ones that we’ve tried from the cut-flower trade which have finished very well.
Margaret: Yeah, I imply, I simply need to attempt them.
Jenks: Those I’ve issues with although are the little tiny ones which are actually seductive. And I attempt to attempt to get them. They’ve 6-inch- lengthy leaves and so they’re noticed, such as you had been speaking about.
Margaret: Sure, sure.
Jenks: Like leopard-skin spots.
Margaret: Just like the ‘Tiny Piny’ sequence. Yeah.
Jenks: Yeah. All of these I simply lose, and I don’t know if that’s due to their genetics or, as I’ve advised you, I similar to huge vegetation. And in our local weather, vegetation are likely to get huge and sprawl, and perhaps I simply smother these out.
Margaret: Yeah. And for me, they do nicely in pots however that type of is sensible as a result of they’re valuable and I’m giving them the little world to stay in and I’m taking care, you realize what I imply? They’re not out competing in opposition to different issues, out on this planet.
You’ve this factor for specialty bulbs. And so I’m trying within the catalog or in your web site, and like I mentioned, we each have a ardour for the voodoo lilies, the Amorphophallus, which once more, have these animal spots. You’ve one thing known as blood lily, Haemanthus [below].
Jenks: Hey, I simply despatched you some blood lilies. Blood lilies would, sure… Yeah, get one other pot and discover some extra room within the basement.
Margaret: O.Okay.
Jenks: So that they have these softball-sized good pink flowers. And for us, they’re a perennial. The flowers although, the flowers don’t present up till the top of July. So unsure, yearly anyone will name me and say, “My blood lilies didn’t come again.” Like, “No, simply cling on. They’re simply not prepared for you but.”
Margaret: Proper.
Jenks: So that they’re grown all world wide and particularly in Northern Europe as a container plant. And since they’ve good-looking leaves, it might probably proceed trying good into the winter. Folks will take them into the home and use them as a houseplant.
Margaret: Oh, O.Okay. Oh, I’m going to examine it. That’s completely attention-grabbing. And I imply, you have got every kind of different issues, the Hymenocallis, the spider lilies.
After which in fact, your essential factor, Crinum, which we talked about [on a previous podcast] and also you wrote a e book about. We talked about that on our final podcast collectively. However the Crinums, are lots of people adopting a Crinum, considered one of your many Crinum?
Jenks: Yeah, positively. After I began with Crinum 30 years in the past, I may hardly give them away as a result of folks considered, nicely, folks right here considered them as type of outdated nation vegetation. They had been just a little white trash. After which folks in Northern locations, into Northern locations would say, “Hey, no, they gained’t work for us.” So I began delivery them to buddies in Baltimore space, and we now have them rising in Pittsburgh and all up on Lengthy Island and into the Midwest, however most likely not as chilly as you’re, most likely say within the components of zone 6. However to try this, you need to choose the fitting species. [A field of Crinum at Jenks’s farm, above.]
Margaret: Proper. Proper. And you’ve got fairly the assortment to select from that’s for certain. Yeah. Properly, Jenks, as you realize, I may simply discuss to you on a regular basis, without end, about all these loopy issues that we each love, and undertake extra issues that I’ve by no means tried, and hopefully perhaps flip you on to some that you just haven’t tried. So thanks for making time. Thanks for taking trip of the backyard as we speak to speak, and I hope I’ll discuss to you once more quickly.
Jenks: Undoubtedly. Thanks.
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MY WEEKLY public-radio present, rated a “top-5 backyard podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper within the UK, started its 14th yr in March 2023. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station within the nation. Hear regionally within the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Jap, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the Could 15, 2023 present utilizing the participant close to the highest of this transcript. You’ll be able to subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
