Taken by Surprise

Every year I eagerly await the first bloom scape of Lycoris, yet I am inevitably taken by surprise when it appears.  It is so appropriate that the common name for this genus is "surprise lily".  I have several types and varieties of Lycoris planted throughout our garden.  This may or may not be because they are pretty well dead easy to grow: average garden soil in part sun to part shade, in a place where they don't completely bake or get bone dry.  The season starts in early July with L. x squamigera.  (I know, it's a mouthful.  I say it "lye-KORR-is skwah-MIG-er-uh.")

L. x squamigera begins the season of Lycoris.

Up to November 2010, I knew nothing of this troupe of fascinating amaryllids.  That's when I entered Elizabeth (Libba) Lawrence's world, and she began teaching me (through her writings and her garden) that I had a LOT more to learn about plants.  This was especially true of bulbs.  In 2011, when I picked up her classic The Little Bulbs, I was smitten and intrigued almost from Page One; the love affair, as well as my curiosity, has only deepened since.  

The first time I saw a group of Libba's original bulbs was 2013.  Surprise!

The first time I saw Lycoris x squamigera pop up in Libba's garden, I began to study her records to see how many of her bulbs might be left.  I was pleasantly surprised (ha!)--in coming years, even shocked--to find a handful of original plantings remained.  The first I saw was cleverly tucked between a low retaining wall and a huge Crinum 'Cecil Houdyshel'.  At first, the placement puzzled me.  Why would she put them where the crinum almost takes them over?!  As I came to know her more, I began to understand her brilliant design talent and aesthetic.  I realized it was a very clever arrangement.  The crinum began to bloom in May and went through the end of July, sometimes into August.  Its flowers were a similar, larger version of the surprise lily.  Once the crinum went over, the lycoris continued for a few weeks longer.  When I cut back the crinum's foliage in late winter, the lycoris foliage would be emerging.  As the lycoris foliage began to die away in spring, the crinum was coming out.  I find that kind of layered planting fascinating; it takes a deep knowledge of plants and an artist's intuition.  It is so smart and highly effective.  Waves of color seemed to undulate through Libba's garden week to week; one season flowed effortlessly into the next.  I aspire to that brilliance in my own garden, but it is neither quick nor easy to accomplish.  Libba was an absolute master at it.  What a gift!

A brilliant pairing with Crinum 'Cecil Houdyshel'.

Getting back to the Lycoris x squamigera ... I love how she describes it, and her companion planting of Dicentra spectabilis (in her Raleigh garden), in A Southern Garden:

"From four to seven fragrant, opalescent flowers are borne in umbels on tapering, thirty-inch scapes.  The first fades as the last opens so that as many as six may be out at a time.  The petals are like a changeable silk in Persian lilac with tints of violet, tints that are repeated in the drooping flowers of the wild bleeding heart.  The lacy foliage of the bleeding heart softens the effect of the bare scapes." 

- Elizabeth Lawrence     

I have a Dicentra eximia looking for a home... and now I know where I will plant it.  

 

 

 

Libba's records indicate the earliest bloom of any of her L. x squamigera was July 10.  (From 1949-1984, first bloom ranged from July 10 to August 1.)  According to her writings, she had them planted throughout her entire garden... enough so that "the whole garden seems to be in bloom when the pink flowers come out." ("For Summer Bloom, Don't Forget Those Lycorises", The Charlotte Observer, April 29, 1962)  Like I said earlier, there were some left in her garden.  As of July 2023, I knew of four remaining original groups, one of which reemerged in 2017 after decades of dormancy!  To date, I have found no definitive information to know when Libba planted any of them, but her bloom journals show they were flowering as early as 1952. 

In my own garden, I have divisions from her original bulbs, as well as several from a few other sources.  Lycoris of any kind isn't super readily available.*  I have seen some sold dry in bags at local big box stores, but I wouldn't recommend getting those because the bulbs don't ever really go dormant, and they resent being out of the ground for any length of time.  It will take them years to recover, if they ever fully do.  If you don't know anyone with a few extra to pass along, I'd recommend getting some from Plant Delights (Tony Avent and his remarkable staff have been doing some AMAZING work with this genus... check it out).  Their bulbs are not cheap, but they are top quality, and well worth the extra cash.   

The first bloom scape opened at SprottHaus on July 7 this year.  Surprise!

However you come by them, you should definitely grow Lycoris x squamigera, so you can be taken by surprise, too!

*Okay, so I just did a google search and it looks like they're pretty widely available, but I'd still recommend knowing your source and seeking out top quality bulbs that aren't sold dry.