Field of Science

Friday Fabulous Flowers - Survivor Lilies

A few blogs ago a sudden and violent thunderstorm devastated quite a number of the hundreds of "magic lilies" (Lycoris squamigera) that annually adorn our late summer lawns and gardens. A goodly number survived by either flowering later or because of a sheltered location beneath some of our large trees. These are quite a mundane plant, but extremely easy to grow and they provide a week of great color in mid-August when the heat and drought of summer can make gardens fade. This has to be one of the most reliable of naturalizing bulbs. Some of the clumps in our gardens are decades old, and when transplanted they almost always grow and flower in their new locations. However don't plant them too close to smaller spring bulbs because they produce a large clump of leaves in the spring that can crowd out smaller plants. Magic lilies grow well around the base of lawn trees.

1 comment:

Beth at PlantPostings said...

That is so weird that we blogged about the same plant on the same day! I suppose it's because Lycoris is one of the only interesting plants right now with most other things fading, as you say. What other plant did we blog about on the same day? We must think alike.