It’s that time of year, where the parade of lycoris (surprise lilies) kicks into high gear. For us, flowering season begins in late June, and continues into October with a steady parade of cultivars. Lycoris flowering is trigged by the natural timing window, but increases after rain showers, and can be consequently be delayed during times of extended drought. Here are some from our collection, flowering for us in late July.
Based on our study, there are only 7 lycoris species, three with foliage that appears in fall; (aurea, traubii and radiata), and four with foliage that appears in spring (chinensis, longituba, sanguinea, and sprengeri). Although new species continue to be published, everything we’ve studies do far is a hybrid between those listed above. Typically, the spring-foliage species are winter hardy into Zone 4 and 5, while the fall-foliage species are best from Zone 7a and south. So far, since the flowering season began, we have had 104 different clones to bloom. As fast as we document and vet each clone, we will make them available through Plant Delights as bulb numbers allow. We hope you enjoy photos from this amazing genus.
Lycoris longituba is a spring-leaf species with the longest flower tube in the genus. The typical flower color is white, although yellow and pink also occur. We think the clone Lycoris ‘Butterfingers’ is the best yellow we’ve ever seen.
Lycoris longituba ‘Trumpeteer’ is the best pink form of Lycoris longituba that we’ve run across.
Lycoris sprengeri is one of the best-known of the spring-leaf species. It’s rarely available commercially, but is quite hardy, easy-to-grow, and offsets well.
Of the hybrids between the two above, the most popular is Lycoris x incarnata ‘Squamigera’. While this is technically the most correct way to write the name, the popularity of this clone may be conserved, even though the name L. x incarnata has priority, since it was published first.
Lycoris x incarnata ‘Viewing Fish at Jade Fountain’ is another from the same cross of Lycoris longituba x sprengeri.
Lycoris x incarnata ‘Stargazer’ is a third hybrid from the cross of Lycoris longituba x sprengeri.
While the spring-leaf, orange flowering Lycoris sanguinea is virtually unflowerable in our hot summer climate, crosses with it and the spring-foliage Lycoris sprengeri perform wonderfully. Below is Lycoris x sprenguinea ‘Matsuribune’
Lycoris x jinzheniae is a cross of two spring-leaf species, Lycoris chinensis and sprengeri. Below is Lycoris x jinzheniae ‘Magic Rainbow’.
Lycoris x jinzheniae ‘Blue Queen’ is from the same cross
Lycoris ‘Cinnamon Sunday’ is yet a third clone from the same cross.
Lycoris x longitosea ‘Super Streamers’ is a hybrid between the spring-foliaged hybrid Lycoris x incarnata and the fall-foliaged Lycoris radiata.
Oooh, I love Lycoris x sprenguinea ‘Matsuribune’! Can’t wait till that one is available!
Would it be possible/a good idea to underplant Lycoris in a hellebore bed? (All Orientalis types).
That would work fine as long as two things happen. First, be sure to allow enough room for the lycoris foliage to grow, unobscured by the hellebore foliage. Do not let the hellebores seed into the lycoris, which would shade out the foliage the eventually prevent them from flowering.