Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Lamenting my Resurrection lilies – the non-rising 2022
Two years ago I talked about my Resurrection Lilies, calling the episode “The Rising”.
I came by this plant in July of 2012 when I moved into my current home.
The previous owner told me that I wouldn’t see this flower coming and I didn’t.
It has lush foliage early in the season, then the whole thing dies back.
BUT then, all of a sudden these stalks holding these beautiful flowers rise from what appears to be nothing.
A week ago, I dubbed 2022 the “Year of the NON-rising” and I thought I’d lost them forever…
This zone 5 plant has withstood a lot but this past winter was another cold one, adding to that was a late cold spring and then tropical heat and drought. From dozens of stalks of flowers to just 8 lonely but rising and now flowering!!!!!
Around the world, the Resurrection lily goes by a variety of other common names, including Belladonna lily, Naked lady and Magic lily.
A native of South Africa, it gets its name because in midsummer the leaves shrivel up as if the plant is dead. Truly it looks dead. My neighbor even chastised me because she thought I’d killed it after seeing all that dead foliage.
This member of the Amaryllis family, Latin name, Lycoris squamigera, prefers full sun but will tolerate some shade. The stalk grows to over 2 feet tall and produces about 6 flowers per stalk. The color is a pale pink to almost purplish color.
Plant bulbs 5-6” deep and 6” apart in the Fall. Mulch the first winter while the bulbs establish and to prevent heaving. This lily will naturalize by bulb-offsets.