“Hurricane Lilies”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana
The peak of hurricane season is around the 10th of September. This is also the time that the hurricane lilies start to bloom. Hurricane lilies (lycoris radiata) or red spider lilies have started flowering. When my sister reported that hers were already blooming almost two weeks ago and mine were not, I was afraid that none of mine would bloom since these bulbs are notorious for being erratic bloomers. (Usually because they are overcrowded or the foliage is damaged by winter freezes) But, I shouldn’t have worried. Mine were just a little behind hers.
These tall, leafless flower spikes just seem to pop up from nowhere. I have several areas throughout the garden with these bulbs, but, so far this year, only one area is showing any blooms. Maybe the other areas are just a little slower.
I have been thinking that maybe I should dig up all my spider lily bulbs and plant them in one area. That way when they start flowering, it will make a better show. A large area of these red flowers with the long stamens would look better than just having them scattered about the garden. If I decide to do this, I will have to wait until spring when the foliage starts dying back. Gives me some time to prepare a bed for them.
I’d rather have hurricane lilies than hurricanes, and so far this year, it looks like we will only have the flowers.
Always Growing 
Tyra Hallsénius-Lindhe said,
September 21, 2010 at 11:48 am
Stunning lily Jan, I think it looks a bit like fireworks. I whole bed with Hurricanes sounds fab./ Tyra
Jan said,
September 21, 2010 at 7:07 pm
The more I think about making a whole bed with these lilies, the more I like it. I’ll have to get busy making a new bed for them.
Scott Weber said,
September 21, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Those are wonderful…I love their long “whiskers”!
Jan said,
September 21, 2010 at 7:09 pm
These flowers are a little different looking with their long stamens. Reminds me of my Cat’s Whiskers flowers.
Robert said,
September 21, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Mine are just coming up now, too. I agree lilies but no hurricanes.
Jan said,
September 21, 2010 at 7:09 pm
I am still keeping my fingers crossed that this will be a quite hurricane season here along the Gulf Coast.
garden mary said,
September 22, 2010 at 4:29 am
Very nice, especially at this time of year when not many new flowers are showing up.