Naked Ladies Surprise
Of all of the cut flowers I have shared, my surprise lilies were the closest to getting me in trouble.
My last Navy Reserves duty station was at US Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, in Illinois, about a two-hour drive from my home. When I worked there mid-summer, I liked to take a bouquet of cut flowers. Surprise lilies, lycoris squamigera, were a favorite because they bloom mid-July to late July, a time when I sometimes worked in Illinois for several weeks.
Surprise lilies have a variety of common names, including resurrection lilies, magic lilies, pink flamingo flowers, spider lilies and, the most eyebrow-raising “naked ladies.”
All of the names are understandable when you see how they grow. Surprise lilies are the North American cousin to the holiday favorite, the South American Amaryllis. Both bulbs store energy through leaves. Surprise lily leaves die back in spring, gardeners forget where they planted them – maybe that’s just me – then mid-July, little buds pop out of the ground on two foot high, leafless stems. The next thing you know, there’s a bouquet of fragrant pink flowers in bloom.
Surprise lilies flower well in both sun and shade. The key is to make sure their leaves get spring sun so the bulbs store energy. I plant them towards the back of my flower beds so other plants provide a little green cover. The bulbs multiply from seeds and probably should be separated every five years. Not that I have followed that advice but then I planted mine with a lot of space in between. I really am a lazy gardener at heart.
On this particular visit to Illinois, I decided to take a couple of vases full of surprise lilies so I could share one with my work partner, who had recently married. I cut two vases full of leafless stems with buds and one stem with a blooming flower so the wife would know what was soon to bloom.
My work partner wasn’t in his office when I dropped off the flowers so I left them on his desk. As I rounded a corner, I heard him say loudly “thanks for the naked ladies,” and smiled as I continued to my work space.
Soon after settling in, his boss showed up at my desk asking to speak to me privately. I followed him to his office and the upshot of the conversation was that I, as an officer, should know it was inappropriate to be bringing pornography to the office.
We then visited my colleague’s office, where the flowers were still sitting. He gave the same lecture there. When he was through, I gestured to the flowers and said “these are surprise lilies, also called naked ladies because of the way they grow.”
The man laughed and we joined in. The next week, after spending a weekend at home, I took in another vase and left it on his desk with a note that said “now you have your very own surprise lilies.”
Are you kidding? I wasn’t about to leave anything in writing referencing naked ladies.
Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is a certified gardener, beekeeper and sometimes cook. Copyright 2016 used with permission, all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Contact Charlotte at chargardens@gmail.com.
PLEASANT SURPRISE – Surprise lilies have several fragrant pink flowers on each stalk and can be cut as buds to extend their blooming time as cut flowers.
JUST LIKE A LADY – Surprise lilies bloom on leafless stalks mid-July, giving rise to a number of common names for the perennial bulbs including “naked ladies.” (Photos by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins).
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