I have this plant...

That pops up a bloom stalk every year about yesterday...no leaves, nothing, just a fall bloom. Last year one appeared, this year there are 4 of them, about 6 feet apart. It isn't anything I planted...could it be a nerene(sp)...???

Could be magic lilies - Lycoris squamigera.

Wow...but where would they have come from??

How long have you been in your house? The previous owners could have had the Lycoris in that location and dug the mature bulbs up and took them with them when they moved, leaving several teeny bulbs behind. Those bulbs took a LOOONNNGGG time to get big enough to send up leaves and/or bloom stalks, and now that they're mature enough they're doing so.

I know this happens because I dug up some Amaryllis belladona bulbs (the warmer-climate equivalent of Lycoris) and put them in a different area. I thought no more about them, but 10 years later I started getting leaves coming up in the area from which I'd dug the bulbs, and about 3 years after that I had my first blooms again in that area. Boy, was I surprised!

We call them surprise lilies around here... or naked ladies... I prefer surprise lily ;)

I got this surprise, too. About four years after moving into this house the first bloom stalk appeared. I was on vacation and only caught the end of it.

However, I had been watching that spot, because almost every year I had seen these nice long dark strappy leaves come up in the spring with no flowers. And every year I wondered what kind of flower this plant would make, if it ever got around to it.

The biggest part of the surprise, of course, was that this thing is not even supposed to be hardy in zone 4a. But I guess the microclimate on the WSW side of the house is a warmer zone.

They are awesome aren't they? I just this year got the connection between those spring leaves and the fall flowers, almost dug those leaves up a few times thinking they weren't happy there, or needed to be divided, or something!!

after i moved here i was careful and watered and fertilized the foilage wondering what kind of lilies i had. then they died. i thought i killed them. then long after the other lilies quit blooming bam there they were! yes what a surprise. but they may try to surprise me again, because i haven't seen any foilage this spring, so i figure they just might be gone this year.