Monday, October 01, 2007

Spider Lilies

Spider lilies are popping up all over the place. They are stunningly red, have an interesting feathery appearance, and provide autumn color. I should say autumn color that is not in a pot. There is just one tiny problem with the whole Spider Lily show - location. Location is of utmost importance in landscaping. A splash of color here, a little texture there makes all the difference in a well hewn landscape.

Notice that the Spider Lily has no leaves at this stage of the game. In other words, we had no idea that this specimen or any of the other 2o or so Spider Lilies blooming at this time existed until a bloom emerged. For the most part, once a bulb has been planted the flower reproduces in a close circle. Not the case here!

I suppose the flowers were originally planted in some centralized location, but we bulldozed the entire yard when we starting working on the place because we needed a tractor to get up the driveway when it rained. There was also the small problem of the driveway running two feet from the side of the house - fine in the city or town, but a bit out of place here. Anyway, we had a dozer person come and move the driveway, level the hill top a bit, and do other hard scape molding. A lot of dirt was moved. Apparently, a lot of Spider Lilies were moved, too!

Our yard is dotted with bright red this year. I don't know what happened last year because they didn't bloom, but this year we have single stems of Spider Lily every ten to fifteen feet. Sure, the children picked the first few, then we realized how interesting the yard could look if we left them randomly dabbing color over the place. I suppose I should go out and dig and move them while I know what and where they are, but then I would lose the color and the fun of seeing the yard with polka-dots!!!

Dots are in, right? I bet you're glad you aren't my neighbor.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Au contraire; I'm just dying to be your neighbor!

You've got the sproinkiest red flowers I've ever seen! And the random madness of it all is to die for!

This truly brightened my day. Darned squirrels ran off with half a sack of narcissus bulbs last week, and now I have HOPE.

Wisteria said...

I wish I had thought to use the word "sproinky". Sproinky is exactly what those flowers are.

Perhaps the squirrels will plant them and you'll have a surprise in the melting snow.

Garden State Kate said...

Love the random beauty you've got growing there!

ranestorm said...

i want some! i was just reading about these wonderful flowers in the newest issue of Southern Living and i want some too!!pxjnbie