Good results with most kinds of garden flowers indicate gardening skill, but there are a few kinds where good results may be largely a matter of luck.
The belladonna lily ranks high on the list of capricious, temperamental kinds.
The beginner is as likely to have good results as the seasoned gardener. What it will do in the garden next door may be a slight indication of what it will do in one’s own garden.
The only commonly known way to get a bloom from it is to plant bulbs and wait until it decides to flower.
Belladonna Lily’s Blooms
During August and September, the belladonna lily bears large clusters of fragrant, trumpet-shaped clear, vivid pink flowers on two-foot leafless stems.
It has been described as “the showiest ornament of its season” and so enchants many a gardener that he would rather give it space for years without bloom than abandon hope of flowering it.
In England, it has been standard for a couple of centuries for hot, sunny places. In many California gardens, it self-sows freely and spreads rapidly. But even in England and California, it may sulk four or five years if moved at the wrong season.
Presumably, it is capricious even in its homeland of South Africa, for the wild bulbs are reported to bloom best after bushfires have burned over them!
Misleading Belladonna Lily
Unfortunately, and through no one’s fault, much of what is in print about the belladonna lily is misleading.
Two different plants with very different habits are called belladonna lilies, and there is rarely any way to tell which a writer is reporting.
Add to this the fact that botanists since the days of Linnaeus have disagreed about the correct Latin names for the two kinds, and there is ample basis for the confusion.
A large part of the world, including students of Webster’s Dictionary, knows the belladonna lily as Amaryllis belladonna.
For the last 10 years, specialists have called it Brunsvigia rosea, which has been listed in catalogs for several years.
Recommended For Growing Indoors
It is sometimes recommended for growing indoors in pots but is usually more unreliable when grown that way than when grown outdoors – and is much more bothersome.
Where drainage is good and the location slightly sheltered, it has survived outdoors in northern Ohio, but the farther north it is grown, the greater the uncertainty about its blooming.
Apparently, only an occasional season is mild enough to enable it to mature bulb strength sufficient for flowering in the northern part of its range.
Favorable Conditions For Belladonna Lily
Hence much of the Midwest offers conditions favorable for it. Good bloom has been reported from various parts of Oklahoma.
I had a bloom in central Kentucky five years after planting. Further south than Oklahoma and Kentucky, results should be better.
There are several varieties and many strains, which is one reason for varying results. For example, the variety common in northern California has long been listed as Belladonna minor, while the one common in southern California has been offered as purpurea major.
Part of the luck involved in success with the plant lies in getting a start on a strain suited to one’s locality.
Different Planting Depths
The bulbs are huge. Different writers recommend different planting depths. I plant mine as friends in California plant theirs, with the tip just showing or else barely covered.
Experience seems to indicate that the ground should be heavily watered at flowering time, either by rain or by artificial watering.
Experience also seems to indicate that the longer the bulbs are out of the ground at planting time and the greater the drying back of root growth, the more years it will take the bulbs to flower.
Bulbs moved with no drying of the roots just after flowering stems die back and will often bloom the following summer.
Dealers are more likely to offer hybrids than the old-fashioned varieties but can usually supply the latter even if they do not list them.
Summer tourists to California can hardly find better souvenirs for their gardening friends than these bulbs.
Belladonna Lilies In Midwest
Belladonna lilies in the Midwest begin their leaf growth in October and continue growing during winter and early spring. Foliage dies back completely in June.
The bare flowering stalks appear suddenly a couple of months later, in the same fashion as the common lycoris.
When winters are cold, the leaf tips freeze back – mine freeze about an inch during normal winters.
Ideally, the plants should be mulched to prevent tip freezing, with a mulch that would not reduce the amount of winter light.
Belladonna Lilies Grown From Fresh Seed
Seeds vary in size from a grain of rice to a pea and are iridescent as the mother of pearl. When the capsules in which they ripen fall to the damp ground, the seeds sprout in the capsule as peas sprout in the pod.
I had perfect germination when I adapted this procedure by placing the freshly collected seed in a plastic bag with a bit of damp sphagnum moss.
Hybridizing Belladonna Lily
Gardeners who wish to do some hybridizing with a view to leaving the gardening world richer than they found it will find that the belladonna lily can be crossed with many members of the Amaryllis family.
The most widely sold cross now on the market is amarcrinum, a hybrid of the belladonna lily and a crinum. It was bred for floriferousness rather than hardiness and is probably more of a gamble than the belladonna lily, except perhaps in the Gulf States.
The great opportunity for would-be garden benefactors lies in hybridizing the belladonna lily for hardiness and dependability.
44659 by R Jacobs