OXBLOOD LILIES Rhodophiala bifida

Oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, are such a common sight in our gardens and on garden posts at this time of year that I was almost hesitant to write about them. Surely everyone knows about this truly delightful fall-flowering bulb. However, there are plenty of newcomers to Texas every year and frequent new questions on Facebook asking for an id, so I  thought I would share the ones growing in my garden. They all came as pass-alongs. 

 

 

By far the largest grouping I have is in the Secret Garden.

Sometimes called schoolhouse lilies or hurricane lilies they are the harbingers of the cooler weather to come. Watering with irrigation will not make them bloom but when rain is accompanied by a drop in temperature and pressure they will burst out of the ground and into bloom. My first passalongs came in flower with their bulb attached and with instruction I put them in a bowl of water to enjoy in the house until the blooms faded. As the flowers come first followed by leaves, which remain all winter and well into summer, when planted after the flower fades they will have plenty of time to bulk up the bulbs for next year's flowering.

It was only yesterday that I noticed one in the Front Courtyard garden tucked in behind the daylilies and the phlox, Phlox paniculata 'John Fanick' I think I may have put one or two of the originals in there and then moved most of them.

I have decided that this was a perfect place and combination. The day lily 'Tiny pumpkin' blooms early on in the year, the phlox comes into bloom into the summer tolerating our Texas heat and humidity well, and finally the Oxblood lily takes the show into the fall. And its strappy foliage will be hidden during the winter through early summer. Always one of the problems with bulbs. Coupled with spring flowering love-in-a-mist and rose campion I think I may have finally settled on a planting scheme that works well for this area. I have also seen a stunning planting in among Mexican river rocks along a driveway edge.

If you purchase or receive oxblood lily bulbs then plant them about 3" deep. They are fuss-free and do not need rich soil. Just sit back and watch them multiply.

WE ARE NOT GOING TO WAIT

With only a modest sign of an end to our long, hot, dry summer, it is a surprise to find some of our fall bloomers still blooming more or less on time. The biggest surprise of all is the first-time blooming of my Lycoris aurea, the golden spider lily.

Five years ago I purchased 3 bulbs at an end of season sale.This is the first year that they have bloomed. The Lycoris family seem to be incredibly fickle when it comes to their willingness to bloom. I did a little research and it appears that a period of dry heat encourages blooms. We have had on 1/2" rain in three months and above normal temperatures through September.  It will be interesting to see if other gardeners share this same success this year.
The Lycoris radiata, red spider lily, while more of a consistent bloomer, had seven blooms this year. I think that is a record.

Of course the Oxblood lilies were not going to be left behind. In fact they were the first to bloom after a scant 1/2" rain. There must some other trigger too because they have had some water from irrigation this summer but there was no sign of life until a few days after the rain. Day length and possibly barometric pressure is my guess. g.
Unfortunately daytime highs were still in the triple digits so the blooms didn't last very long.

The Philippine violet is one plant that every southern garden should have. After winter dormancy, in which it dies back to the ground, it spends the whole summer putting on several feet of beautiful green growth, and begins flowering in October. The original plant has seeded in several places including at the foot of the dry-stone wall in the English garden. I know it is pointless trying to remove it so I will just let it stay. Flowering on this one is a little ahead of the other ones.

I have two that seeded along the edges of the patio in the sunken garden. They have been growing there for many years, disappearing over winter and returning to bloom in the fall.

I have had little success trying to move other seedlings although I have one more new seedling which I will try to move over winter.
This morning I watched an anole on the plant licking something from the leaves. I wonder if it was a small amount of water or even some substance exuded from the leaves.

Talking of which...  the amazingly fast growing candlestick plant, Senna alata, began growing in one of my vegetable beds at the beginning of August. It is about to bloom and the ants are busy helping it along. Ants always mean sweet stuff and the nectary glands on the edges of the petals exude sugar which the ants are busy farming. They do the same thing on peony flowers. No harm done in this case except for the fact that the ants are in this bed.

It's time for the Japanese anemones to bloom with their never-quite-perfect flowers.

Large arching branches of the bush clover, Lespediza will soon be covered with pretty pea blooms.

So the fall season is not all lost just as long as we don't go straight into winter. I know some gardeners in the North did so this week.

LITTLE POPS OF COLOR

I have often mentioned how red was my least favorite color among garden flowers. But there are beginning to be more and more times when I eat my own words, and that time is now. Sometimes red gives that little pop of color which just brings the whole garden to life.

Whereas spring in the front courtyard is mainly about the blues, whites and yellows, fall is mainly about the the varied greens of the grasses and other textured plants. The salvia, Salvia greggii, dormant all summer, spring into life. One of those straggly plants that every year I think of removing until now. Here, straggly looks better than bushy as their arching branches reach over the rocks.

In another corner of this garden the same is true of the firecracker fern. I have seen magnificent displays of this plant when grown in good soil but mine stays rather short and retiring until rain and cooler temperatures bring out the bloom.

Under the shade of the Lady Banks rose, dormant all summer, the shy and retiring Oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, respond to a good soaking rain by sending up their naked blooms. And what a show they put on this year.

And in the back garden there are the annual strawberry gomphrena, Gomphrena globosa and spider zinnia, Zinnia tenuifolia, and they are red too. Although they usually reseed each year I still save save seeds just in case we have an unusually hard winter.

Another red flowering plant that will be moved into the garage for winter is the Japanes Lantern hibiscus, Hibiscus schizopetalus. It is certainly worthy of a home in the entry garden, if only for its exotic frilled bloom.

Look how deep the color is on the blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella. Cooler nights are responsible for the depth of color. All flowers seem to take on more color during the fall.

Yes. Red is good.

AFTER THE RAIN

It has taken me a few days to even think about mentioning the damage my garden sustained. It's all minor compared with what Houstonians and those along the coast are facing and will face for years to come. With Austin 200 miles away from the coast our rainfall didn't come anywhere close to that at the coast and while the winds did some damage none of it was catastrophic. We didn't lose any big trees and are forever grateful that we don't have trees overhanging the house, having lost those 5 large oaks several years ago. I'm glad we got those down immediately. We had lots of twigs and leaves scattered all over the place and in the plants. My poor oaks are not in very good shape and now they lost more leaves.
But the rain has gone and the sun shines again and the garden couldn't be happier. In less than a week the oxblood lilies, Rhodofiala bifida. began to bloom. Sometimes known by the name naked ladies because the flowers come before the foliage, they appear overnight, a signal that cooler weather is on the way.

A new crop of the pink rain lilies.

Everything in the garden is refreshed. Wafts of almond fragrance from the blackfoot daisies, Melampodium leucanthum. I wish they were a little more generous in spreading their seed. But this one found a perfect home in the English garden among the stone steps.

More seeded among the grasses in the front courtyard garden.

There's nothing a seed likes better than to find itself in a gravel bed. No fertilizing or watering needed here.

Across the garden the flowers on Rosa Felicia are beginning to show a deeper pink color. Sometimes, even on the hottest day her fragrance wafts through the arch.

The first blooms of liatris hang over the low dry stone wall in the English garden.

I can almost hear the plants saying, 'We made it through the summer and now we have fall to look forward to.' I hope this is the case. Those cooler mornings do make all the difference.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BOOM DAY, SEPTEMBER 2015

Drive around Texas after a fall rain and as like as not you'll see roadsides of rain lilies, Zephranthes ssp and gardens of oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida. Today I had four different kinds of lily open in response to the rain we had last week. The most prolific are the Ox-blood lilies which I have clumps in a couple of places. Many years ago a garden friend offered me some of her bulbs. They were in full flower.  "Just take them home and put them in water, enjoy them in the house and when the flowers die just plant them in the ground" What a forgiving plant which will allow you to dig it up when in full bloom and then enjoy its flowering for days. Come fall, and following a rain you notice a small nub of green peeking through the ground and within a day or two the flower bursts open from a single green stem. Later, when the flowers die two strappy leaves appear and remain until early summer the following year before they disappear. During their dormant time they prefer to be dry. They also prefer to be planted with their bulb tip just above the ground.

Our native rain lily flower, Z. drummondii, comes from a deep rooted bulb. I try to gather the black seeds before they fall because much as they like my my herb garden I would like them to bloom elsewhere.

My pink rain lilies,  Zephyranthes ssp, don't seem to produce seed at all. How I wish they would.

But the yellow ones do, and they now seem to be popping up in different places.

Long stems of liatris open their flowers from the top down. I watched a queen butterfly visit today. She must have forsaken the Gregg's blue mistflower, Eupatorium greggii,  blooming in the back garden.

This year I took out the gray globemallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua, in the potager. Much as I loved its prolific orange blooms it just seemed to clash with the other plants. In its place I planted the more delicate pink variety which drapes over the low wall.

And my native Texas Indian mallow, Aubutilon fruticosum, in the front garden has a similar delicate appearance but velvety leaves.

Temperatures may still be in the 90s but both flowers and gardeners know we have broken the back of summer and we have only fall to look forward to you.
And Rock Rose wishes you a Happy September Bloom Day.

Thanks Carol at Maydreams for hosting Bloom Day for gardeners everywhere.

FALL IS AROUND THE CORNER

When the high temperature for the day drops into the 80s then gardeners in the south know that the back of summer is broken and fall is on the way. The message also comes from fall blooming plants; those that respond to shortening daylight length.
The first blooms on the Philippine Violet, Barleria cristata, appeared this week.

It will be in direct competition with another purple bloomer, Mexican bush sage, Salvia leucantha. Salvia leucantha is a favorite of the hummingbirds as they begin their long migration across the Gulf of Mexico to Venezuela.

Another purple fall bloomer is the Fall obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana, although I have never found it to be particularly obedient.

With cooling temperatures came torrential rain, 8" overnight in my garden. A sure signal that the Oxblood lilies will push up through the soil within a few days. And here they are.

If my garden is anything to go by it is going to be a bumper season for the blubonnets. I have never seen such germination. The ground is literally heaving.

And heavy rains carried many of the seeds to the edges of the garden.

I rescued these from a watery grave this morning but there is no way I can salvage those above.

I have other seeds to manage. Earlier this year I received a bag of trial seeds from American Meadows. I chose the dry wildflower mix. In Central Texas we sow hardy annual seeds int he fall so that is my plan over the next week. They will find a home in spots where wildflowers are lacking. I doubt they could compete with the bluebonnets.

They also sent some packets of vegetables, carrots and lettuce. It will be interesting to see how their sugar snap peas compare with my favorite Cascadia. I have planted this pea for years and it never fails to produce the most incredible crop. The pod can be eaten from the snap stage to full pea stage.

Coupled with my left-over seeds and collected seeds from last year, I have my work cut out. However, cooler days will mean more hours in the garden.

There is no rest for the Southern gardener.

THE NAKED LADIES HAVE ARRIVED

They come quietly in the night. You might miss them although I don't know why because they come every year about the same time. Sometimes you get advance warning from a garden friend about their arrival in their garden. This sends you rushing out into your own garden to look for signs of their arrival.

Borne on bare stem the Oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, began blooming just over a week ago but the wonderful weekend rain hurried them along. Now, multiple groups of the flower are blooming in my garden. The bulbs were first introduced into Texas by German Settlers and have become a favorite of southern gardeners. Mine were a passalong from Melissa, at Zanthan gardens. I remember going over to her house for a clump of the flowering bulbs. At home I enjoyed them in the house, in a bowl of water, until the flowers faded. Then I planted them in the ground.

The second naked lady to bloom was the red spider lily, Lycoris radiata. They don't seem to be quite as large this year but there are more of them. The first bulbs to arrive in the US were brought by Captain William Roberts. He brought 3 bulbs back from Japan planting them in his own garden. Now the bulbs have naturalized in many parts of the US south.
After the flowers fade the leaves begin to appear and continue their growth throughout the winter and into the late spring. If you plan to move the bulbs then the time will be after they have flowered.

GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY, SEPTEMBER 2013

My flowers are happy to be featured once more on Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, after a summer hiatus. Thanks to Carol, at Maydreams Gardens for hosting.
There are some plants which are late to appear in my garden. Plumbago, seen below is one. It disappears over the winter only to begin growing when summer days are at their most fierce. The little bee returned with me from our travels.

Blazing star, Liatris spicata, is also a late bloomer and is perfectly suited to the company of cactus and agaves in the dry limestone gravel.

This week the first of the oxblood lilies, Rhodophiala bifida, made their appearance. I almost missed them, situated as they are at the back of the rock garden. Maybe they deserve a place in the spotlight as they bloom for such a short period if time. More are to follow judging by the buds just showing.

In the stock tank water garden the first bloom on the crinum, a passalong from Pam Penick at Digging.

Fall obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana.

Gregs blue mistflower, Conoclinium greggii..

Sparks flying from Gomphrena 'fireworks' This is a plant that leaves an aroma of curry on the air when you brush up against it. Good thing it is in the potager.

In the same garden narrow leaf zinnia, Zinnia linearis, adds a punch of color.

Rudbeckia grows between the pads of the spineless prickly pear which render support.

Watering with a hose, on my return, revived many plants including this blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum, growing among the pink crystal grasses.

Rose 'Felcia' is blooming for the third time this year. You can't walk by this rose without stooping to smell her wonderful fragrance..

The purple skullcap, Scutellaria wrightii along with an annual seedling salvia.

From time to time the cross vine, Bignonia capreolata, sends out a spray of flowers.

A surprise blooming of the Texas clematis. I have always been disappointed in the color of this one which looks wishy-washy against the garden wall.

Migrating hummingbirds are having a field day with the flame acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus.

The garden may be looking a little tired because of the heat and lack of rain but there are still plenty of blooms to enjoy.
Hope you are enjoying the blooms in your garden this September bloom day.