Surprise and Delight: the Season of Lycoris Begins!
No matter how many long I have known and grown Lycoris (surprise lily), I am always surprised and delighted when the first bloom scape shoots out of the ground. I'm on the lookout for them in early July, as soon as peak daylily season begins to wane. On my several walks through the garden each day, I eagerly check every spot where I know they're planted. For me, the surprise lily season normally begins the first or second week in July with the cheerfully sunny Lycoris chinensis . Its flowers are the most delicious warm yellow, somewhere between Lemon Yellow and Buttercup Yellow of the British Colour Council's Horticultural Colour Chart (#nerdalert).* This bulb has been with me since 2020, thanks to a very generous fellow Lycoris-o-phile friend who grows it--and many others--in Maryland. Everything I had read about yellow types (mostly referencing L. aurea , which can be tricky in this section) did not instill much h...