Amaryllis belladonna

Shortly after moving in here we noticed a strange looking lily. There were no leaves at all! The flower itself was a pretty pale pink so we just left them to see what would happen. One day our neighbour remarked that my "naked ladies" were looking nice pointing at the strange lily. So I did a web search to find out more about this lily.

Amaryllis belladonna

I thought my neighbour was joking about the name of this plant. The blooms were so pretty yet there were no leaves. I thought that was very odd. However, he wasn't joking about the common name for this plant. The scientific name for the Naked Lady or Belladonna Lily is Amaryllis belladonna. Of interest Amaryllis is a monotypic genus containing only the species Belladonna Lily (source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaryllis) Naked Lady is a bulbous plant but is not a true lily despite the common names. I've heard them referred to as Jump-up Lilies and Magic Lilies. They like full sun but mine are in partial sun and do fine. They reach a height of two to three feet.

The Naked Lady has one of the most interesting growth cycles! The bulb produces bold, strap-like deep green leaves in the fall after blooming. The leaves die back by late spring and the bulb is then dormant until about mid-August in our Zone 6A. Suddenly almost overnight the stem will appear. The trumpet shaped, fragrant pale pink flowers are on a single stem with no leaves hence one of their common names. They will continue blooming through much of September.

It is a good idea to mark the location of Naked Ladies as there is no indication of them after the leaves have died down. The first indication is when the naked stem appears. The bulb does not like to be disturbed. Originally we had two clumbs of Naked Ladies growing under the Rose of Sharon. I carefully dug one clump to plant in another location. It took two years before the bulb in the new location bloomed. The picture is of the transplanted clump. It's a good thing I did move them though as our over zellous lawn care service has played havoc with the clump in the original location. One stalk remains so I put a small barrier around it to protect it from the weed wacker. I plan to mark the location then transplant the bulb in the spring to a better location. The Rose of Sharon have filled in so the lily is in shade most of the time.

Happy Gardening

Garden Gnome