Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Pass Along Plants (Spider Lily)


We have some lovely flowers in the South and many of them are not native but are still very well adapted to the area without being invasive.  The flowers pictured above have many common names...spider lilies, magic lilies and apropos of my blog, British soldiers!  I saw these last September on the way to my family reunion. I wanted to stop and take a photo of them but alas, we were in a hurry.  Luckily for me, I discovered some blooming behind the building where the reunion was being held!  Aren't they gorgeous in their stand up and be counted shade of RED!

There is another lily very much like it that is blooming now, only it is pink and you will love this, they are called "naked ladies". No, I'm not kidding! In Southern Living magazine, there is a very good gardening columnist and he just wrote an article about them. You may read it just here.  He titled the piece, "Surround yourself with naked ladies"! He is very knowledgeable about plants and flowers but very funny too! (Called the "Grumpy Gardener", I think he should call himself the the "Hilarious Gardener"!)

Here's the thing- I saw so many of these beautiful red flowers last September that I felt sure that they were native.  Imagine my surprise to learn that they are really from Japan and to see so many of them, means that the people of North Georgia simply love these red flowers and have passed them along to each other for years! (Lycoris radiata...first from China, but then, to Japan, where they were then sent to the USA.)
One of my most vivid memories of my grandmother, is of her "rooting" plants to give away to others. I wonder if she knew of this red beauty?

According to Southern Living magazine, some of the top pass along plants in the southern United States are as follows:  

daffodil
spider lily (star of this post!)
canna
day lily
camellia
gardenia
   

How many of these do you know? (You know I know them all!)  Do you have any of them in your garden?  I think of these, the only one that is native to Georgia would be the canna.  The daffodil is native to northern Europe and the others are native to Asia.

By the way, if anyone has a spider lily and wants to pass it on to me, I will happily accept it! I would love to have that bright red in my garden! Better yet, maybe I could buy a spider lily bulb and then, pass it along to others.
Hey, I must be more like my grandmother than I realize!
Let me know if you have any of these flowers now, you hear?

Take care and don't forget to admire flowers wherever you are!



26 comments:

  1. I never forget to admire flowers whereever I am, Kay, even though I rarely have any in my home and don't have my own garden. But the view from my kitchen window across to the elderly lady's garden is one I treasure so much - I don't know what I'd do if that garden was gone one day, built over or some such thing!

    I like the humour of that gardener :-)

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    1. I also love the view from you kitchen window! How nice that you are able to enjoy the garden even though you don't do any of the work, that is my kind of garden! :-)
      Glad you like the Grumpy Gardener too!

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  2. We see those here in some gardens. Sweetie's favorite is the gardenia

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    1. We had a gardenia bush next to our house as I was growing up, so it smells like home to me!

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  3. Lovely. I enjoy gardens, even our own - though am best when given simple jobs to do. It's surprising how few plants we take for granted are not native. Not only colourful ones - but where would the UK (and Europe) be without the tomato, potato and sweet corn (maize)? No chips, no pizza... I should imagine that an article entitles 'Surround yourself with naked ladies' would attract a reasonable amount of attention, initially.

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    1. No chips, no pizza? That would not be right, would it?
      I should have said this in my post, but I will tell you now. I grew up with my Dad and Mom being great gardeners and my older sister also, Me, I would help water now and then. Now, it is my husband who mainly works in the garden, and I help him water now and then! HA!

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  4. Oh yes, I know all those flowers, and have nearly all of them in my garden. The camellia died. Never had a canna but my mother always grew them, and there are plenty in our neighbourhood. I think our climates must be quite similar. Gardening is so fun and your spider lilies are beautiful.

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    1. That IS interesting to me, that being in Australia you know all these flowers too! I do like the spider lilies so I hope to have some in my garden one day. (I just took a photo of them at the small town of my family reunion.)

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  5. We have the naked ladies here only I call them mystery flowers. The leaves come up in the spring and then die down and the flowers on the long stalks bloom in August. The stalks are naked with no leaves. Ours are pink, but I love the red ones you have pictured.

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    1. Mystery flowers, I love the name! And you can see why they are called bare naked ladies! Someone must have had a chuckle, whoever called them that for the first time!!

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  6. I wish I had some of these. Actually I have never seen the bright red ones, but a house I used to walk by had the pink variety just outside the white picket fence around the small yard. They were charming and we called them surprise lilies. If I did have any of either sort I would certainly send you some bulbs, Kay! I have day lilies of many sorts here and at the cottage and daffodils of many varieties, too. Camellias and gardenias don't grow here. I tried to grow gardenia as a house plant more than once but they died! And perhaps I am not good for them. When I had a gardenia corsage when I was young it usually turned brown in a very few hours. I have grown cannas but one year forgot to dig them up and bring them in for the winter. So no more cannas though they are wonderful for all the variety. I just read the wikipedia article about cannas and was surprised to learn that the roots are edible. See how my mind gets lured on and on! Well, perhaps "next year in Jerusalem" I will have some lycoris in my garden.

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    1. I can just picture them, the pink flowers on the tall stalk around a white picket fence, it sounds lovely!
      And you are a doll to wish that you could send me the bulbs!
      Interesting, that you can eat canna roots! I never knew that!

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  7. Love the spider lilies, such a pretty color, must find some.

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    1. Funny thing, I have never seen them around in this area, The ones that I have pictured here were closer to my hometown of Toccoa, Georgia but I suspect that they could grow anywhere in the state!

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  8. I love to see Spider Lilies growing in the woods - I love how they seem to "volunteer."

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    1. As much time as I have spent in the woods around here, I have never seen these flowers until I saw them last September on my way to the reunion! Tell me where you have seen them and I will look for them. :-)

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  9. They really are beautiful Kay! Spider Lily - I love that name!

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    1. Thank you, Shirley Ann! I love your blog, thanks for visiting mine and leaving a comment! :-)

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  10. The flowers are beautiful! Happy Friday ♥

    summerdaisycottage.blogspot.com

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    1. Hello! I see where you lost your posts from your blog and I am so sorry! You seem like a positive kind of gal and I see that it won't get you down. Good for you!

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  11. I think I always have too much to say! I wanted to mention the book Alice-All-By-Herself by Elizabeth Coatesworth. One of the stories in it is about pass along plants. An old lady who always shared starts of her plants had them all freeze and die one dire winter's night and then all the people she had given plants to give back starts to her. I think she might have ended with more than she had to begin with. There is a lovely lesson there.

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    1. That IS a wonderful story and I am happy that you have shared it here!
      My grandmother died when I was eight years old so I don't remember much about her, but I do remember that she loved plants and flowers and that she disliked cooking. I really do take after her! :-)

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  12. Nice flowers. It's amazing how many plants and animals we think of as native are introductions. In Europe's case the Roman army brought a lot of "friends" they left behind and its been going on ever since. Garden centres are now the biggest culprits for introducing dangerous soil pests into the UK from abroad via potted plants.

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    1. I just found out this year that the white cabbage butterfly that I know very well is really from the British Isles! My Dad says it eats cabbages but not if his collard greens are around, they like them the best!

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