Plant is full sun to light shade in a decently well-drained soil and irrigate infrequently to regularly in summer - this plant has proven itself to be quite drought tolerant in coastal gardens but it flowers and grows larger with some summer water. It is cold hardy at least for short duration temperatures a few degrees below 20° F and is considered the most cold hardy of all Crinums. Treat for snails and slugs that can mar the foliage. A great accent plant that makes a bold tropical statement in California gardens. Seeds about a bit but easy to remove when young but older plants need to be deeply dug to get to the bulb plate.

Moore's Crinum is native to forests in the northern areas of Eastern Cape, South Africa. The name for the genus comes from the Greek word 'crinon' (or 'krinon') which translates as "lily". This species was named in in 1887 by British botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, plant explorer and director after his father, William Jackson Hooker, of the Royal Botanic Garden Kew. The specific epithet honors name a Dr David Moore, the director of the Glasnevin Botanical Gardens in Dublin, Ireland, who first flowered this plant from seeds sent back from a British soldier serving in South Africa in 1863. Thad Howard is his Bulbs for Warm Climates states that "Crinum are to warmer climates what the genus Lilium is to colder climates, replacing the true lilies in the tropics and subtropics" and that Crinum moorei "thrives in California".

It is hard to differentiate the various forms of this species from hybrids of it with other crinum, particularly the ones crossed with the large evergreen Crinum asiaticum that are called Crinum x powellii and since we have both of these species, as well as other species such as Crinum bulbispermum and named hybrids in the garden, our plants of Crinum moorei may in fact also be hybrids. Our original stock came from the grounds of the Joseph Sexton Nursery, which was established in 1867 as first commercial nursery in the Santa Barbara area. When the property was renovated in the mid-1980s we dug and moved hundreds of existing crinum bulbs out of the way of construction and these became the stock plants of the crops that we grew and sold from 1988 until 2020. We still have large stands of this plant in the nursery gardens. 

The information about Crinum moorei that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.