Spider Lillies . . .

When I was a small boy in New Roads, our house had a nice front yard.  Out by the  street, the highyway really, was an Oak Tree.  It had been planted by allegedly Mr. Vilas Pourciau.  He must have died well into his 70s and had nice home on the other end of town.  In time lightening took out  the tree and a new tree was planted this time in the center of the yard.  It is still there but surrounded by concrete pavement, I wonder how long it will last?

Near the corner of the front porch was a Redbud Tree.  I really abused that tree, I tried but was not successful in building a tree house.  Of course my mother would never have allowed that to be finished.  I was maybe 9 or 10 years old - that's sixty years ago.

Around that tree was planted red Spider Lillies.  They sort of came and went on their own.  I recall them blooming and later putting out foliage.  And then we mowed them down.  I never really understood that and yet as I read today in their culture that was the thing to do.  So that is why they florished.

Took me years to find them in bulb catalogs.  And I have seen them here and there in my travels but did not have access to any of them until recently  I bought some bulbs and planted them in the front flower bed and they sprouted and made foliage but no blooms.  In the winter they died off and later this spring the area got covered by volunteer Katy plants.  So they were essentially forgotten.

Well yesterday I noticed five or six shoots up about 10 or 12 inches.  The Spider Lillies were blooming, on schedule I might add they are sending up shoots.  It seems they are related to a lilly I had seen in Ohio, Nake Ladies who also shot up blooms with no foliage at all.  Both plants develop foliage after they bloom.  So we will see a few blooms at first.

I am hoping the deer leave them alone.  And it they do so, maybe there will multiply and once again I will have my childhood colors back again.  The deer have eaten just about anything we plant except for strong herbs, Katy plants (and they will eat those too if they are really hard up) and Jasmine.

By the way, our home in New Roads was remodelled in 1957, the Redbud tree taken out and new living room replaced the porch and them some area toward the street.  So where ever they were planted, the Spider Lillies had been displaced and largely forgotten.  I am sure my mother did not much care for them at all, they sort of just came with the house.

So the Spider Lillies are back!