Lycoris Species, Hurricane Lily, Red Spider Lily, Surprise Lily

These lived up to expectations with the flowers providing showy color late in the season when everything else is done, plus unremarkable ...Read More green leaves continue through the winter here in New Orleans zone 9b. I have planted many, many bulbs over the last couple of years here, purchased from various southern ebay garden sellers, but I've so far only seen a few blooms come up -- some people say they often don't bloom the first year after being moved. But luckily they look great as a specimen plant as well as in mass -- even one alone is worth it. I mix these in with my nun's orchids and day lilies since they are on opposite schedules.

Jim Waddick of the Pacific Bulb Society grows this with winter protection in Platte County, MO, Z5b, and reports that it's fully hardy th...Read Morerough Z6.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/Lycoris/Garden_L...

I obtained around sixty bulbs (two shovels full) from my sister in Chestertown, MD, a few years ago. I divided them and planted them in ...Read Moresix or seven locations around my home. They do quite well in shade or 50/50 sun/shade. They do like to remain in damp soil. It takes two seasons to flower, once the bulbs are moved.
I absolutely love this one...dark red-orange-salmon petals on 12-15" stalks appear before the thin, dark foliage which remains through the winter. Then, the plant "disappears" until it signals that fall is arriving in September, flowering for two-three weeks.

We had a couple of years with foliage only and no flower; but this bulb has now become established against a south-facing wall here in co...Read Moreastal Massachusetts. The flower spike is just breaking through the soil—our fourth consecutive bloom season.

My daughter married a wonderful guy from Alabama, on a recent visit there I loved these red "wildflowers". They were just popping up all...Read More over and I had never seen them before. Knowing how much I love gardening, my new son- in- law took a shovel and dug up a cluster of three flowers to take home. Well when I got home to Florida there were 53 bulbs in that one shovel of dirt!! I have them in pots and trays everywhere and everyone is sprouting. Sure hope I can keep them going down here in zone 9.

Here in Tifton, Georgia, these beautiful bulbs are just beginning to bloom. To me they are a beautiful time table, reminding me that fall...Read More is truly here. I look forward to seeing them show their bright red blooms every year. Without them fall isn't fall. They, to me are just as important as fall leaf colour.

I rustled my original 5 bulbs from a GreatAunt in Tyler, TX. There they were growing under the shade of tall pines and in good sandy loam...Read More soil. After bringing them home and wanting to eventually transplant the bulbs to a new house when I moved, I planted them in a 8"widex24"longx6"deep window planter box. Unfortunately I never moved and they have not either, it's been at least 10 years. At last count there are 31 bulbs in this window box and currently 9 are blooming and more have shoots and will bloom soon. "Hermine" dropped so much rain it seems to have set them off and running.
Living in the window box the bulbs seem happy, and when I eventually do move they will travel along to the new house.
I have a brown thumb and can kill the hardiest of plants, but these bulbs seem to thrive on neglect and still bloom merrily each fall.

I had this lovely bulb in central Louisiana -then we moved to Ohio (zone6). Wondering if I can plant these here if I dig the bulbs up in ...Read Morethe fall and put them back out in the spring. Any ideas?

I didn't bring any with me when we moved 3 years ago.

This is one of the beatiful lilies I have ever seen. My only problems is they do not stay in bloom look enough. We have some growing on o...Read Moreur place, and our place goes back to my wife's great, great, grandfather. It is told that my wife's great, great, grandmother planted a small handful of bulbs that was give to her by her grandmother. So now these bulbes go back 8 generations.
They are really beautiful when they spring up and bloom. From the time they spring up till the time they die back is just a week or so.
Thanks for reading.

Lycoris radiata is one of the most rewarding, reliable, and incredibly beautiful bulbs one can grow here in north Texas. We have several ...Read Moreplantings in our suburban garden, some of them many years old; and they all come up every year and produce flowers, sometimes in great profusion (depends on the rainfall the previous summer). Because of the mild climate here, the winter foliage almost never frosts. No pests or diseases seem to bother them. The only problem is remembering where they are while they are dormant in the summertime, so as not to disturb them with other plantings. I've solved that problem by planting them under groundcovers. The tall bloom stalks pop up almost overnight after the first good early autumn rains and produce a dazzling display of feathery red-orange blossoms up to 6 inches across. Good for cutting, or just let them show off in the garden when little else is blooming.

The name fits this plant.(Surprise Lily) I didnot plant it I have no idea were it came from. Its a great plant. I was shocked and surpris...Read Moreed when I saw it growing in my garden! I hope there is more that comes up.
Greg
Zone 9
Fresno,CA

people here in beaufort call it the hurricane plant because it only comes up when we have either tropical storms here on the coast of nc,...Read More or hurricane rains..

I grew up in Denison, Texas (on the Red River, border with Oklahoma), where the "spider lily," as it is commonly called there, grows in j...Read Moreust about everyone's yard, thanks to decades of passing along the bulbs.
Similar to the comment by another contributor, children in my schools would bring in HUGE bundles (two to four dozen) of fresh cut blossoms, a favorite and charming memory of my youth.
It certainly is true, as noted by others, that one usually forgets all about the bulbs being in the ground until one day when you walk into your garden and are greeted by this most beautiful "surprise"!

My husband and I have to move our spider lily soon. We are adding on to our house. The spider lily was his grandmother's (she is not lo...Read Morenger with us) and it is really important for it to survive transplant. When is the best time to transplant it?

Thank you for your help.

I recently moved into a new home in LA (Lower Alabama) (zone 8). 2 days ago, I was putting some scraps into my black, open bottom, compo...Read Morest bin and discovered a flower at the top of the bin. It seems to be a very hearty spider lily.

What country is this plant native too?

It is growing quite happily under the shade of tall wattles in Australia.

I just love these beautiful plants. The bloom doesn't
last long, but while it is here, I'm so excited!

They pop up ...Read Morehere and there, and everywhere.
Who wouldn't welcome something so nice and
unexpected?

Easy to grow!

i bought an old house and this plant was growing here when i got here. they are everywhere. they grow on top of themselves and under th...Read Moree iris. i have so many i am planting my entire road frontage with them. but i love them. my children take their teachers bouquets. when hundreds of these things are blooming it is truly magnificent to see.

Right now, the foliage is up all over town and soakin' in the sun.

To those who believe this plant is free of maintenance requirements... you're mostly correct.

This particular flower perfo...Read Morerms very well in my area, of which the soil is mostly red clay.

We had a mound of these in one corner of the yard, yet only received 3 or 4 flowers each flowering cycle. These are one of the easiest bulbs to divide... when I dug mine up, they were about the size of a plump green onion. In the past 2 years, I've divided them - some remained in their original location, and now bloom profusely. Others have also done equally as well in both shade and full sun locations of my yard.

This is one of my all-time favorites. In this neck of the woods, we call this "Hurricane Lily" or sometimes, "Surprise Lily" for the obvi...Read Moreous reason, judging from the other feedback here.

Typically, it blooms during peak hurricane season, often after a lot of rain is dumped on the area in a short period of time. The specimens I have bloomed during the four-hurricanes-in-one-month in 2004: right after Tallahassee got 10 inches of rain in 12 hours! After the bloom dies, the foilage pops up for a while and then dies back as summer heats up. During peak hot summer, there's no evidence or trace of this plant. Then, as hurricane/rainy season progresses, there you go!

Propagate by dividing bulbs. This is a common pass-along plant in North Florida/Southern Georgia. Dig deep to get to the bulbs.

I didn't purchase this flower, however to my suprise I was walking through my yard and saw this interesting bud emerging from the ground....Read More Over the next several days I monitored it, and when I came home this evening I saw this georgeous flower!!! I immediately scooped it up and transplanted it to a prettier location (afraid the landscapers might mow it over). I then scanned the rest of my yard and noticed that on the edge of the wood there was a huge clump of these beautiful flowers. I have transplanted them all and am so excited for this wonderful find. I only hope I didn't damage them transplanting them while in bloom. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

A very pleasant surprise this morning. Yesterday no signs of a flower were showing. We didn't know it was there. A very beautiful plant.

This plant has been spotted in Arkansas. My neighbor has some growing in her yard and they are extremely beautiful. I hope to soon aquir...Read Moree some bulbs.

I found this plant close to my greenhouse but I've never bought or obtained a Spider Lily, nor do I own any types of lilies right now. ...Read Morer />
It's a beautiful plant. I live in zone 6b and it bloomed in mid-September and was very showy. I will transplant it to a nicer location so I can see it more.

Once you put the bulbs in the ground, you can actually forget about them! Their blooming time is not long - 2 to 3 weeks at the most. ...Read Morer />
The red ones grow wild here - you can find them in ditches, in the middle of yards, etc. I recently found yellow Spider Lilies (Lycoris chinensis) and they are lovely with the red Spider Lilies.

This plant is very easy to keep and virtually no mantainance needed. The bulbs divide so I have several plants now. They are hardy plants...Read More and can take transplanting with no probelms. I highly recommend it for any garden.

Lovely addition to any landscape. The small, narrow strap-like blue-green leaves die away in early spring. Then seemingly out of nowhere...Read More in August, the 15" tall spikes emerge from underground, topped with a deciduous azalea-like flower of bright red. After the flowers fade, the leaves emerge again and persist until spring, producing food for next year's flowering