lycoris radiata (red spider lily) culture

I have a little row of these at the bottom of my rock garden, up against the first little wall. While they come up and get nice and green, in the fall, they rarely bloom. I think my soil is very acid; should I add a little lime? Also, what should I feed them with and how often?

have you moved them any?? i know everytime i move mine for some reason it takes a year for them to bloom agian. they may not be old enough yet to bloom also.

http://www.shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/lycoris.html

if you scroll down after the pictures under culture it talks about fertizer for these.


mine like the shade .

I moved 2 or 3 of them down with the ones I already had but the older ones haven't been blooming much either. Thanks for the link.

The best looking Lycoris I have ever seen were in Austin, TX (8b) on a hillside in a freeway median. Left overs from from a home garden when Mopac was built. They bloomed every year. They were in clay soil and Austin is pretty dry most summers.

Most bulbs, that are true perennials in your climate do not need fertilizer. Organic mulch and trace elements (in poor sand soil) should be enough. Too much nitrogen causes lots of leaf growth and few flowers. I have read that bulbs, generally, are adapted to poor soil conditions.

Out in California's Napa valley the grape growers have moved away from fertilizer and use ground up rock products to improve the soil/growing conditions. I wish I could get granite dust and some of the other products they use.

what dale said is true. lycoris radiata is almost a texas wildflower it is so hardy here. to keep from mowing grass i am lining my roadway with them. they bloom in the sun and in the shade..........seems like the shade ones bloom a little earlier. they thrive on neglect. if i were going to add anything to the soil it would be bone meal. but i have never given them any in there lifetime with me. i have thousands of these bulbs. they grow on top of themselves and under the iris. if you plant deep they just make more bulbs all along the stalk all the way up to just beneath the soil. the bulbs can get huge if watered but they don't need water to bloom. i sent a friend some in pa. she was afraid they would freeze outside so she kept them in a box in the basement.................they grew in the box. i have started some yellow ones. i hope they grow as well as the red ones here. good luck. barb

The yellow one are a little less frost hardy. Even if they freeze back to the ground they will regrow new leaves as soon as the weather warms up a little. White is also more tender. Lycorus radiata is by far the toughest, most northern growing of the bunch.

I have very acid soil here. Do you suppose that could be part of the problem? Isn't the soil in most of Texas quite alkaline?

The western half of texas tends to be low rainfall and alkaline soil (black clay). And the best lycorus I have seen were in 8b. Most ratings I have seen for radiata say 7 is the northern part of its range (zones 7-10). But a good micro climate, south wall, should help. Try mixing or top dressing with lime to raise the ph, plus bulbs love calcium (and bone meal) and lime is calcium. Good luck.

OK, I gave them the bone meal and have Lime on my shopping list.
Wow! your gardens are beautiful. I hope my lilies look that good in time.
But what interested me the most in that shot is the building. The quoins on the corners give the impression this is an older house, perhaps historic. Is this correct?

I'm not too far from you and mine do great in this red clay and acid soil..they do resent being moved and the clumps that get too big dont seem to bloom as well..so I dont know why yours are having problems. I dont think it is the acid soil though...

Well, thanks for all the help everyone. I gave the a lot of bone meal and only a little Black Kow. I may even give them some Peter's Bloom Booster or triple phosphates just as an experiment. I do know our soil is poor in phosphates.