How long does cardiocrinum cathayanum last in flower?

[pontus]

Hello Everyone,

Does anyone know for how long a cardiocrinum cathayanum flower lasts after opening untill it starts to fade?

I imagine it depends on sun/shade and heat/cold..etc as well?

I have a superb cardiocrinum cathayanum specimen in a pot with 7 flowers, out of which 4 opened today. I was hopeing to bring this to a plant show on saturday. will they last untill then? It will be 25°c here and full sun everyday apart from thursday apparently here, so i am worrying they will go over in the heat...( I am keeping the pot in the coldest and shadiest part of teh garden of course to try and hold it back...)

any reassurments of the flowers possible looooong lasting would be welcome

Pontus

[Lesley Cox]

I should expect them to last at least a week provided they weren't pollinated in the meantime.

Since your show is now in the past Pontus, can you give some idea of what the lasting time was?

[pontus]

Yes, well i'm happy to report that the whole 7 flowers lasted for the show, although 1 got slightly damaged on the way there in the car and fell off...

it was very hot during the show, so i kept mooving my parasol around to give it some shade, but even with some heat and sun, it seemed more or less ok during the day.

as i write, it is still in full bloom with 5 flowers still looking good. 1 flower is fading and i imagine 2 flowers will fade tomorrow or thursday, so all in all, i would say that it lasted in good condition for 2 weeks.

With some luck i will have seed in the autumn to share with anyone interested, and with the patience needed for them to reach flowering size!

I will upload some pictures from teh show at some point too

Pontus