You will delight in growing the hardy amaryllis (Lycoris squamigera) if you enjoy unusual plants.
The bulbs were not too plentiful for a long period, but they are in good supply now. For the small price a bulb or two costs, you will be buying years of pleasure.
Few, indeed, are the plants that evoke as much comment or create as much interest in my garden as this one, with its unusual growth cycle.
Planted in either spring or fall in any good garden soil where it will get sun, the hardy amaryllis needs little further attention.
Hardy Amaryllis
Every few years, the bulbs increase fairly rapidly and should be taken up, separated, and replanted. Unless this is done, the bloom will decrease with the years until it may cease altogether.
Like its relative, the narcissus, the hardy amaryllis sends up narrow, strap-like green leaves in the spring.
There, however, the similarity ends. Unless you have been forewarned about the plant’s growing habits, you may watch impatiently, looking for buds.
Then, when the foliage turns yellow, dies down, and disappears, you would be disappointed, even dismayed, if this is your first experience in growing this plant.
You may give up hope that the plant will ever bloom. But don’t despair. Mark the spot with a stake, for after the leaves have gone. You may dig up the bulbs when cultivating other plants.
Lily-Like Flowers
Toward the end of July, look for a pale green stalk beside the stake. It will grow several feet high and soon wear a pinkish bud crown.
In a day or so, from 6 to 8 lily-like flowers, each about 4” inches long, will open. Pink with a lavender tinge, these have stamens of the same hue and a pistil shading from pastel pink to deep wine red.
No wonder the hardy amaryllis is sometimes called both magic lily and mystery lily with this startling habit of bounding out of the earth into bloom without a sign that it ever had a leaf.
In the perennial border, hardy amaryllis gives a note of light airiness and delicacy in midsummer.
The blooms, which stay fresh for days, are most satisfactory for flower arrangements. Their pale color blends well with deeper hues or with white.
44659 by Bertha Newhoff