“You should have seen my garden last week” or some variation on this theme is a common refrain when visiting a garden. I felt much this way recently when I led a tour of Juniper Level Botanic Garden. I just could not find a knock-your-socks off clump of Rhodophiala bifida. So here is a glorious clump I photographed on September 4, 2024. This is one of those plants that just gets better the longer it goes undisturbed. The bulbs multiply which means more flowers and in time, maybe 3 to 5 years, one starts to get a display similar to the one in the photo. If you don’t know this bulb, it is a nearly fool-proof one blooming here in August into September. Blooming now at this time of year gave rise to two of its common names: Hurricane Lily and Schoolhouse Lily. It is also known as Oxblood Lily for the ones common in gardens are this color, though they can also be pink and extremely-rarely white. A really nice feature of this plant is that once it first finishes blooming, and one thinks it is done for the year, it blooms all over again. Average soil and a location where the foliage will have a generous amount of sun in the winter months is about all it needs. It’s dormant in the summer. The form common in gardens, and the one in the photo, is the sterile strain ‘Hill Country Red’, so you will not be able to grow it from seed.
