Crinum 'Schreck'

Crinum 'Schreck' displayed excellent timing this year by blooming the same weekend the new Shrek movie opened. 'Schreck' was named by Marcelle Sheppard, who got it from the Schreck family of Vidor, Texas, by the way of her friend, Ruth Dubuisson.

While we don't know the history of the plant before it was found in the Schreck garden, we can be fairly sure that it is a Crinum × herbertii hybrid, the result of crossing Crinum bulbispermum with Crinum scabrum. These hybrids, called milk and wine lilies in the South, can be extremely variable for plant size, flower size and shape, and the degree of striping found on the petals.

'Schreck' is a good example of a medium sized Crinum × herbertii, with well-defined red stripes on nicely shaped flowers. Some have suggested that it's the same plant as 'Carroll Abbott', but I've found consistent observable differences and don't think so.