While visiting Heronswood with my mom pals in 2003 and pushing our baby boy in a stroller (note the devoted plant lover with a little one in tow – ugg!), I spied this INCREDIBLE plant from afar and it was love at first sight!
Then, blessed be, if I wasn’t in Port Townsend for our anniversary and stumbled upon Kelly from Far Reaches Farm selling this exact plant. I was warned about the dedication & patience I would need for the next 7 years waiting for it to bloom from the comparably insignificant mounding leaves it would put forth year after year x 3. The amount of sluggo needed to create a bubble of safety. Told of the English ‘tradition’ of burying a dead sheep in the planting hole because it was a tremendous feeder. I signed the adoption papers and vowed to care and protect.
So folks, I’m here to shout at the top of my lugs – IT IS GOING TO BLOOM THIS YEAR!!! My plant is still growing and it is over 10′. And when you smell an amazing sweet lily scent that is wafting from the back woods of Duvall on the night breeze, it will be bursting forth from the 10″ tubular blooms that will make even my botanical brain woozy. I’m going to park my chair in front of this plant and watch it day and night until it withers to seed heads. Like the Field of Dreams movie and the saying ‘build it and they will come’, I fear that I’ll need to have assistance with parking on our rural street!
Like remembering important dates of marriage and birth of children, 2013 will be the year my Cardiocrinum bloomed! Here is a current photo pre-bloom. Watch with me in anticipation on facebook as I post more photos of this botanical wonder.
