growing eucomis bicolor, or pineapple lily, in pots

I WAS GIVEN A POT OF EUCOMIS BICOLOR, the so-called pineapple lily (guess how it got that name), by a friend who was moving and couldn’t take it along. Why had I forgotten how easy this wacky-looking South African character, whose genus name means well-haired because of the tuft of brachts topping the flowerhead, is for overwintering in the basement here? From its moptop to the purple-mottled stems and freckled leaves to its long-lasting, trouble-free performance, there’s nothing about Eucomis bicolor that I don’t like—except that I don’t have more.

When I was given my pot in May, only some of its purple-spotted foliage was showing; Eucomis bicolor awakens relatively late in spring. I set the pot absent-mindedly in the sun on a bench by the front walk, and watered it each week—but that’s it.

The foliage would have been a satisfying result enough, but then in July the flowers started. (OK, maybe the plant does have one little downside: The blooms are not sweet-scented, but kind of funky-smelling.) The pot probably has five bulbs in it—the three my friend planted and some younger offsets that aren’t blooming size yet.

Even the first bulb that bloomed, more than a month ago, continues to look good, and is setting handsome green seeds. You know I love “investment plants” that serve to color up the main gardening season year after year but stash easily indoors—whether as houseplants proper, or dormant in the 45-to-50ish-degree cellar like the Eucomis, or (for the toughest of all) just protected from the ice and wind inside the frigid barn.

 I am definitely making room for more pots of pineapple lily and its various cousins. With the Eucomis, topdress with all-natural organic bulb food according to package directions when the