Menehune

Description

Of all the burgundy leafed perennials I grow, this is my favorite.  The leaves stay beautifully colored all summer and into fall.  Last year I used this nearly black plant, with tangerine lantana for a great Halloween container.

Leaves never more than 18″ tall, Small, rapidly dividing bulbs make killer foliage plant. Great in normal soil but loves mucky soil or even standing water.  A fine pond plant! Completely hard in zone 7 and this is grown in the ground, in zone 6 at Mesker Park Zoo in Indiana.

Note a few odd things about this.

1. This is a small plant, so the bulbs you get will be small — it simply never gets big.

2. It’s a foliage plant that doesn’t flower a lot. In fact some folks never see flowers.

3. Some nurseries sell the same plant under the made-up, trademark name Crinum Purple Dream.  It’s the same plant with a fake name.

The real name is ‘Menehune’ which is a perfectly good name based in Hawaiian mythology — they were a dwarf, dark-skinned people who lived in the mountains.   See a perfect name for a dwarf, dark crinum!

We ship bare-root plants with leaves and living roots on them.  Clumps of small bulbs, the clump about the size of a big coffee mug!