{"id":3346,"date":"2021-03-22T05:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3346"},"modified":"2021-03-22T05:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T13:33:00","slug":"rain-lilies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/rain-lilies\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain Lilies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SKU<\/a>
SKU 93612
ZEPHYRANTHUS CARINATA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are days when I want to live in the moment, celebrate the quotidian experience and relish immediate delights\u2014like the many stands of snowdrops currently on display in various parts of my garden.\u00a0 Other days, I am drawn to the past; especially when I think about people and places that exist only in memory.\u00a0 Being a gardener, though, also means living in the future and planning for seasons to come.\u00a0 Right now we plant seeds that will sprout in ten days and bloom in eight weeks, not to mention ordering perennials that will flower in mid-summer.\u00a0 In a few weeks, we will buy starter tomato and pepper plants, knowing that we will not taste the fruits for a couple of months.\u00a0 In early fall we plant daffodils and tulips in the hopes that we and they will survive winter and rise in glory when spring rolls around.<\/p>\n

Many people plant bulbs in the fall, but some of us also do so in spring.\u00a0 I was trolling the nursery aisles the other day when plant lust forced me to buy a package of Zephyranthes bulbs, which I intend to pot up in the next week or so.\u00a0 I was looking for a particular brand of mint-scented deer spray, but came home with bulbs.\u00a0 There is no excuse for this other than the fact that distractions are plentiful in garden centers and the need for brightness is particularly strong this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cZephyranthes\u201d comes from the Latin words for \u201cwest wind\u201d and \u201cflower\u201d.\u00a0 This is a poetic description of the plant\u2019s western hemisphere origins and its attention-getting blooms.\u00a0 The common name, which is easier to read and pronounce, is \u201crain lily\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cFairy lily\u201d is another name that gets play in some places.\u00a0 The plants are small and somewhat crocus-like, usually rising from four inches to twelve inches, depending on the species.\u00a0 The foliage is somewhat grassy and appears at the base of each plant.\u00a0 As card-carrying members of the amaryllis or Amaryllidaceae family, rain lilies proudly sport trumpet-shaped flowers at the tops of each bloom stalk.\u00a0 Those flowers, which will remind you of their much larger amaryllis or hippeastrum cousins, may be white, pink, yellow, or, more rarely, red.\u00a0 Patience is key with Zephyranthes, because even if you pot them up soon, they may not blossom until late July, early August or even later, again, dependent on species.<\/p>\n

The name rain lily is slightly deceptive, because these lovelies don\u2019t bloom when it is raining, but right after.\u00a0\u00a0 This makes them like the flowering plants native to desert areas that do nothing until after a heavy downpour and then burst into carpets of color as the skies clear.<\/p>\n

The package of bulbs I bought at the garden center is labeled \u201cZephyranthes\u201d without reference to species.\u00a0 The flashy picture on the bag shows a mix of pink, yellow and white, so I suspect that I have a combination of Zephyranthes candida, Zephyranthes citrina, and Zephyranthes grandiflora, in white, yellow and pink respectively.\u00a0 The different species may bloom at slightly different times, allowing me to boast to friends about the trouble I took to ensure succession of bloom.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, gardeners should brag about the following: positive actions taken deliberately; good things that happen despite neglect and\/or laziness; and serendipitous events that don\u2019t fit in either of the other categories.\u00a0 It is good for morale.<\/p>\n

Like all of us, rain lilies have certain needs.\u00a0 The plants are tender in cold winter areas, though Zephyranthes candida is supposedly hardy in USDA plant hardiness zone 7a, where average annual extreme winter low temperatures go no lower than five degrees Fahrenheit.\u00a0 I live in that zone and grow my rain lilies in pots.\u00a0 If I were to put the white rain lilies in the ground, I would do it in a protected spot with a heavy layer of mulch on top.<\/p>\n

Whether you grow rain lilies in the garden or in pots, plant them about two inches deep.\u00a0 In the garden, plant them two \u00a0inches from their neighbors; in pots they can be placed closer together.\u00a0 Sunshine is key.\u00a0 Water during dry spells.<\/p>\n

The diminutive size of rain lilies makes them useful in rock gardens, small beds or the fronts of larger beds.\u00a0 Interplant the bulbs with annuals so that you will have something in bloom while the rain lilies languish in late spring and early summer.<\/p>\n

If you are like me, you will plant rain lilies and stop thinking about them shortly thereafter, except to remind yourself of the reason why you keep a soil-filled container that appears devoid of plants on the porch or patio.\u00a0 One day, late in summer, it will rain and the flowers will burst forth.\u00a0 They will be worth the wait.<\/p>\n

Preserve your zephyranthes bulbs by lifting them in late fall, letting them dry a bit, and storing them in a cool dry place until you are ready to plant them again the following spring.<\/p>\n

Zephyranthes were first discovered by Spanish explorers in the 1500\u2019s.\u00a0 If you would like to discover them this season, you can probably find packages of bulbs at big box stores or large garden centers.\u00a0 If you hurry, you can also order them from Old House Gardens, 4175 Whitmore Lake Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105; (734) 995-1486; www.oldhousegardens.com<\/a>. Print catalog available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are days when I want to live in the moment, celebrate the quotidian experience and relish immediate delights\u2014like the many stands of snowdrops currently on display in various parts of my garden.\u00a0 Other days, I am drawn to the past; especially when I think about people and places that exist only in memory.\u00a0 Being … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3],"tags":[295,1797,808,2481,634,161,2480,2482],"class_list":["post-3346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-bulbs","tag-compact-plants","tag-edging-plants","tag-fairy-lilies","tag-fall-flowers","tag-late-summer-flowers","tag-rain-lilies","tag-zephyranthes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3348,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3346\/revisions\/3348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}