Monday, 29 September 2014

Echoes of the past (Lycoris radiata)

I've been totally diverted away from chronicling my gardening and nature observations over the last couple of weeks, with my attention pulled towards managing details around an upcoming event, classes, and programs.

But the practice of observing doesn't stop, and I was delighted to see, in a scruffy edge next to a fence by an older rental house, a patch of "Naked Ladies" -- Lycoris radiata.

Also called spider lilies, hurricane lilies, magic lilies, resurrection flowers, or other names of that ilk, seeing them reminded me of when I first saw them, long ago, in front of our first house, in Georgia, whose landscape had been carefully planted by devoted gardeners.
Higanbana (Lycoris radiata) in a woods (from Wikipedia)
The bare flower stalks emerge in September looking exotic without foliage.  Here's a photo of Lycoris (from Wikipedia) in possibly its natural habitat (Japanese woodland communities).  The photo is labelled "Higanbana in a woods."

It grows well throughout the Southeast, and can naturalize.  And clearly old patches persist for a LONG time, echoing past gardeners and gardens.

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