Schoolhouse lilies - it's almost time for these lovelies to bloom!

I love schoolhouse lilies. I have written about them before.

Here is the information I usually include when I gift someone with bulbs:

Names: Rhodophiala bifida, oxblood lily (due to color), hurricane lily (often first rain is a hurricane), schoolhouse lily (blooms when school starts)

Blooms: September through October, after first Fall rains.

Propagation: Dig up and divide bulbs in early summer as the leaves begin die down. Small bulbs may take one or two years to flower.

History: The oxblood lily, a South American native, is the toughest and most resilient plant in my garden save the weeds. It was introduced to Texas in the late 1800s. After heavy rains in the fall, the deep red flowers sprout on stems about a foot tall. The flowers look like miniature amaryllis (which they are kin to). After flowering, they send up strappy bright green leaves which finally die down with in the heat of the following summer.

You can leave oxblood lilies undivided for years and they will come back annually with the Fall rains. Although common in older neighborhoods from Austin to Fredericksburg, they are almost impossible to buy. The bulbs are sterile triploids and must be propagated by division. Divide them as often as you can or ignore them. It won’t matter.

Although you should divide them after their leaves have died down (so that they can store up as much energy as they can for the next growing season), people have divided them at all times of the year with no ill effect.

Bulbs that are golf-ball sized or larger usually bloom in the fall of the same year you replant them. Bulbs smaller than must put on a year's growth before producing flowers. If you plant groups of like-sized bulbs together, you can divide them efficiently, one, two, or three years down the road.

I traded a neighbor for some fig preserves and ended up with over 1000 bulbs. I have been giving them away for years. I often plant in a big pot until I decide where to put them in the ground. Put them where you will see them since they bloom fast…like just outside the door. These little plants seem to thrive on abuse. In fact, one year, I found some large clumps in the yard (where a stray bulb fell at one point). The stray ones seem to grow as well as the ones I plant.

Close-up of the blooms

Lilies in the yard. Planning on having a circle of red around this tree some day.

I love how they brighten up a display of foliage.

A few years ago I was part of a group of military wives whose spouses were deployed. I believe it was 2007. Anyway, there was one wife who drove us all a bit crazy.* So, I decided to do something nice for her (balance my karma - wicked thoughts needed moderation. You know?) and send her some lily bulbs. She lived in an area I figured would be tolerable for the plants - not too cold, not too hot, good rains in the fall...

I sent her a box of bulbs and explained that it does not matter how deep you plant them as the bulbs will find their necessary level. They actually "pull" themselves deeper in the ground.

"No they don't," she replied. "Bulbs don't do that."

"OK" said I (karma once again out of balance).

I had not thought of this in some time. But then I made a midnight raid on a source of bulbs (the house sold, the new people will never miss them) and threw the "recovered" bulbs on top of a couple of pots of loose soil - to wait for time to replant them.

A month later I returned to the pilfered bulbs and discovered they had been on the move, attempting to "right" themselves and "pull" themselves into the ground. This can be seen in the elongation of the bulb and movement of the bulk of the thing to the lower globe (weird, I know - look at the picture).

Below are photos of a couple of examples of the bulbs that were migrating.

Just saying....

Lily bulbs resting on an aluminum pan in the garden. Note the weird shape of the bulbs...the one on the far right shows an empty bulb shape above a new bulb that will move to the bottom of the elongation.

I will divide these in a few months (probably November or December, after they have bloomed and put out leaves) and will find that all are normal bulbed plants again.

NOTES:

* She was a little extreme about the sharing of information about our husbands..."loose lips" and all that. I was not the target of her diatribes as my DH was the same rank as hers (and I suppose she knew better), but I spent some time calming others who were less experienced with rank-pulling wives who enjoyed lording it over the new, less experienced, and fretful ones. I always felt my role was to hold folks' hands, gently guide, and encourage. Guess it was a simple difference in style. [So, karma balanced again? Maybe? Whatever, I tried.]