I have 10-12 Naked Lady bulbs that were given to me by a garden friend several years ago. The bulbs bloomed the first year as expected but have shown little promise since then other than leafing out in late spring. Last season, I dug them up thinking they had possibly rotted only to find that they were healthy, firm, but situated a couple of inches deeper than I had originally planted them (seems to be a common problem with all bulbs in my planting spaces) so I dug out the bed, amended heavily with compost and a smidgen of peat moss, and replanted with the tops just barely breaking the soil surface. No flowers again this year...
Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong here? While I can always buy more, the elderly garden friend has since passed away so these particular plants have more meaning than those I can buy. Therefore, I'd like to grow them to their full potential if at all possible.
Current conditions are in a well amended foundation bed next to a Chicago Peace Rose (superb blossoms!), depending on time of year they'll get anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of sun a day, mulched with shredded pine bark, and the bed is kept watered as needed.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Steve
Naked Ladys / Belladonna Lily
They need fed, sun, amd yes, bulbs tend to dig themselves deeper holes. Did any of them show signs of new bulbs?
All had "baby" bulbs of some size attached. I started with only three mature bulbs. When I dug them last, I divided and replanted those that were of a size to mature on their own. As to the tiniest, I left attached to the "mother" bulbs to grow on.
I'm almost afraid to ask but based on my bed positions, none get more than a few hours of sun a day (no where near the 6 to 8 hours recommended for full sun plants) when you take into account the seasonality, (house faces northwest with one large live oak in front and one large red oak in back, both on the westerly side of the house/yard and both shading the planting areas from about 3pm on...
Might your opinion be, disregarding for the moment other planting factors, that in general the bulbs just aren't getting enough direct sunshine to produce the necessary nutrient build up in the bulb?
I appreciate your response.
Steve
Yeah, bulbs and corms (of irises say) require that Vit D even in Texas. I will have to actually look up your bulbs, but I have seen these blooming better thrown out on the fall woodpile than in well tended areas.
Okay. They appear to resemble our crinum amaryllis, need heat, water, full sun, allow to clump, use bone meal in the hole you plant them in and chunk a bit of nitrogen after blooming as they can be heavy feeders with all those blooms. Will freeze back in 32* weather and come back in the Easter storms. Looks like you could force winter blooms indoors, but the bone meal will help through stress...
I fell I love with Naked Ladies on my last trip to CA and brought home several and have now bought some new ones as well. Like many of the naturalizing lily type plants, they seem to do better when abused, left to their own devices. They were growing around chain link fencing, obviously spreading out of yards and into ditches. Saw them in middle of the roads, in abandoned lots, and almost under the edge of sidewalks. I stopped and asked a lady if I could rustle some and she told me to please take them all.
I have all of mine except one in pots since it is fall. I just planted one in a new bed to see what happens. It was blooming when I dug it, although I had to cut it off to get it packed for the trip home. I was warned that they would dig themselves too deep to bloom, but the ones I dug up in CA were fairly close to the surface, go figure.
I hope someone successful with them posts, I am in love with them even though they don't hold the meaning for me that yours do. I have dark pink, red, and hopefully a striped one.
Thanks all. I may look for another planting site where they can be "mistreated" more than they have been so far and see if that works...
Steve
Are yours the fall blooming red naked ladies? (edited to say ~ sorry, I see you put the correct name in the title) I have the old red naked ladies and find they don't bloom every year but pop up after a good fall rain. I hope you find an answer that will help mine too. lol
As Kit said, bulbs need the sunshine for blooms. I am sure you know the foliage is how the bulb gathers the nutrients. Many folks cut the foliage down rather than let it die naturally. When they do that, the bulbs won't bloom. I would guess from your setting planted by the rose, you don't cut the foliage back.
Do you recall the setting your friend had them in? Kristi
This message was edited Sep 29, 2013 8:20 AM
Kristi, are you talking about hurricane rain lilies? They only bloom during the fall and the blooms only last a day. They are bright red.
They only bloom if the conditions are right, a little cool weather, a soaking rain, shorter daylight hours. Unlike Belladonna lilies whose blooms last several days, the rain lilies don't last nearly as long. They are also small, about 8" or so tall where BL are around 2 feet.
Yes, the one I was thinking was Lycoris radiata which is a passalong here commonly called Naked Ladies.
I guess that, combined with the time of year made me think of the red one. I caught the Belladonna name in the title after I posted and edited to correct.
My lycoris radiata are going to be blooming today or tomorrow. Wish someone had passed them along, sigh, I went for years longing for them before I bought some. This year I bought some yellow spider lilies to go with my red and my white ones. I can't wait till they bloom, probably not this fall but I am hopeful.
I have both the Belladonna Lilies (red blooms) and Zyphrantes (pinkish blooms), the last of which are commonly called "rain lilies" and are tiny little things. The Belladonnas are fall bloomers and yes, I always leave the foliage until it dies back. As to the Zyphrantes, I'm about convinced that you can throw the tough little bulbs on the ground, step on them to squash them into the soil, and care or no care, they just keep right on putting up their three or four little leaves and blooming after every rain, no matter how slight.
As to my lily friend's garden setting, I really have no idea as she was in Southern California but from the few images she posted on that now defunct forum, I always had the impression that hers was a relatively crowded garden (like mine) with various amounts of shade from a little to a lot. I also remember that she gave away these lilies every year as if there were no tomorrow since she often noted that they multiplied like crazy.
I also have 20± (red) Spider lilies which have just completed their bloom cycle but these were descended from a few bulbs I bought several years ago at one of the big box stores that was cleaning out their summer garden stock. At 25¢ each, how can you go wrong?
After thinking this over some more after reading your responses and seeing rouxcrew's pics, I'm wondering if the problem may not be twofold. That is, I'm fairly certain now that they don't get enough direct sunshine and too, I may be treating them far better than they like to be treated although the last is just conjecture on my part.
One always assumes that plants like to have ample amounts of water, fertilizer in some form, and tender care when in reality, I'm learning that there are many plants that almost thrive on neglect... I've apparently just never grown any of them.
I thank you all for your comments and ideas.
Steve