Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Nudity in Hometown

The naked ladies are dancing in the yards here in the Hometown. I have observed this phenomenon since I moved to the Midwest fifty years ago. In fact this occurs with such punctuality that for many years I have predicted that they would enact their show on July 28. Hence, on Sunday, 26 July, I went to the garden to check it out. No nude dancers. Ah, but yesterday! Yes! How do they know? Where do they keep their calendar?
Naked Lady, aka Surprise Lily and Magic Lily (lycoris squamigera) always delights as it dances, long legs crowned with lavender-pink shawl and golden tiara.
The leaves of this plant spring up in late winter or early spring, a cluster of them resembling daffodil, but there is no bloom. By the end of May, the leaves have withered and usually have disappeared back into the earth from which they sprang. Then two months later, showtime.
These flowers do not produce seeds. I saw many of these as I rode my bicycle across town this morning, even several in an abandoned vacant lot.
This flambuoyant planting is in Dick's garden. Mine are in the middle of too many taller plants, and while very pretty, they do not show as well.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that what those are called? I've got a few of those coming up in my yard, too, leftovers from the lady who owned my house first.

vanilla said...

Jim,
Yep, that's what we call them here in Hoosierdom.

Silver said...

Very pretty.

Got some lilies in my garden too- they're so easy to grow, so hardy, requiring so little tlc.. but yet so delightful and forgiving!

Mine comes in orange and some are in pink .. just get a couple of bulbs, before you know it, they're thriving!Excellent!