Red Spider Lily | Lycoris radiata

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Fall Flowering Amaryllis

Lycoris radiata is one of the most rewarding, reliable, and incredibly beautiful bulbs one can grow here in north Texas.  The bulb will spring forth with a stem and then flower in the fall season, sometimes in great profusion I believe the success of flowering depends on the rainfall from the previous summer. The foliage appears after the flower and almost never suffers frost damage. There are limited pests or diseases. They become dormant  in the summer as the foliage dies back.  The tall bloom stalks pop up almost overnight after the first good early autumn rains or hurricane season. They produce a dazzling display of feathery red blossoms up to 6 inches across and are a wonderful speciman for the landscape garden when little else is blooming in the autumn.

Red Spider Lily, Surprise  Lily. Hurricane Lilyy

The lycoris bulb grows to a height of 12-18 in. (30-45 cm) and should survive  in USDA Zone 7a: to -17.7 °C (0 °F) to USDA Zone 9b: to -3.8 °C (25 °F). It prefers a sunny to partial shade exposure and regular watering planted in a loose well drained soil.  It can be used as a border in front of perennial shrubs and it attracts butterflies.

The earliest reference I have found for the red spider lily growing outside it's native environment, so far, is Camden Park, Australia. Now, whether it was growing in Australia before the landing of the HMS Endeavour at Botany Bay on April 29 1770 is the question. 

It is believed to have been grown in Japan prior to the 19^th Century.  It has been suggested that they were introduced into Japan from China along with rice cultivation.

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The red spider lily appears after a good rain in the fall. I have placed hundreds of  these bulbs in four large pots placed along a crescent shaped bed that rounds out a corner of our lot. I also included two

The bulbs are frost tender (7b-8a) so I am happy they have survived two years in the pots. 

In the United States Lavinia Cole Roberts is credited with sharing this beautiful bulb with other gardeners throughout the warm southern states. Lavina was the niece of Captain William Roberts. He gave her three bulbs offered to him on an expedition in 1854. Lavina's home and garden is located in New Bern, North Carolina. Details here.

Below is one of the first botanical prints I could find. It is from the publication, The Botanist Repository, published by Henry Cranke Andrews (1770 – 1830) in 1801. Andrews, through his marriage to  Anne Kennedy, was affiliated with the firm, The Lee and Kennedy Vineyard Nursery, located in Hammersmith, London. 

The Botanist Repository, published by Henry Cranke Andrews (1770 – 1830) in 1801

The second botanical print I have found, in chronological order, is the 1811 print from the Stuttgart Palace Garden by artist and publisher, Johann Simon von Kerner (1755-1830).

Kerner, J.S.,
Hortus sempervirens, vol. 29: t. 344
 (1811)
Source: Plant Illustration

The 1822 botanical art below is a print published in the Botanical Register. This time the artist is M. Hart. I have not been able to locate additional information on M. Hart but there were two botanical "Hart" artists in this area, the other artist was I.J. Hart, James McDougal Hart (1828 – 1901)). The Botanical Register, subsequently known as Edwards' Botanical Register, was an illustrated horticultural magazine that ran from 1815 to 1847. The Botanical Register was started by the illustrator Sydenham Edwards. After Edwards death, James Ridgway became publisher. Ridgway issued nine volumes between 1820 and 1828.

M. Hart
Edwards' Botanical Register
 (1822)
Source: Plant Illustration

The last botanical print is by artist, Louis Severeyns (1860).

Lycoris radiate (L’Herit.)

La Belgigue horticole, journaldes jardins et des vergers, vol. 10 (1860)

 Van Houtte, Louis (Severeyns, Stroobant and De Pannemaker)

Louis Severeyns, published in Belgium

Source: Plant Illustrations

References.                                                                  

1. Introducing Lycoris to. U.s. Flower Lovers." Agricultural Research Washington. 53.12 (2005): 12-13. Print.
2. Koyama, Tetsuo. The Japanese Species of Lycoris. Place of publication not identified, 1959. Print.
3.  Hori, TA; Hayashi, A; Sasanuma, T & Kurita, S (2006), "Genetic variations in the chloroplast genome and phylogenetic clustering of Lycoris species", Genes Genet. Syst., 81 (4): 243–253, doi:10.1266/ggs.81.243, PMID 1703879 
4. Evans, Erv & De Hertough, A.A., Lycoris radiata; Spider lily, Naked lily, Red spider lily, NC State University, archived from the original on 2011-09-13, retrieved 2011-09-13.   
5. Klingaman, Gerald (2000), Plant of the Week : Red Spiderlily, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Services         
6. The Plant List.   
7. Stevens, P.F., Angiosperm Phylogeny Website: Asparagales: Amaryllidoideae
8. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.   
9. Knox, Gary W. (2011), Hurricane Lilies, Lycoris Species, in Florida, Environmental Horticulture Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, retrieved 2012-04-12. 
10. Mathew, Brian (1978), The Larger Bulbs, London: B.T. Batsford (in association with the Royal Horticultural Society), ISBN 978-0-7134-1246-8.    
11. William Herbert. 1819. Botanical Magazine 47: pl. 2113