Thursday, January 25, 2007

Surprise Lily, Resurrection Lily, Lycoris squamigera



This is one of my most treasured plants, I have about 30-40 of these, given to me by an old neighbor years ago. They are one of the first things to emerge and green up early in the spring then the leaves disappear, in mid august soon after a good rain, tall flower stalks appear. They are known as surprise lily, resurrection lily, magic lily and naked lady. My neighbor called them naked ladies. They are really Lycoris squamigera. They smell wonderful, anything that smells good is a fav of mine. I wonder if I used "naked lady" as a tag I would get some traffic to this blog????????????? I don't think I will try it :). I would like to move and divide some of the bulbs but do not really know the correct time of year to divide, I have read that they should be dug after their leaves die back and I have also read that they should be dug in the fall after blooming. So instead of taking a chance of losing them I just let them go.

3 comments:

Jenn said...

What zone are you in?

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

I live in zone 4, these are not supposed to grow here, but they do.

ericat said...

It seems about the same in my garden too. The lilies apear and go to rest without being dug up. I have different lilies but I can relate how good it is to see them each year. Our Amaryllis belladonna is first to apear with their scented flowers. Not very unlike your lily. If you have time see my lilies at lily garden