One of the highlights of August blooms is that of the pink surprise of the Naked Ladies or Amaryllis Belladona. The green straps of leaves which are apparent in the spring die back for the summer, and then suddenly, the elegant stems begin to shoot up.

From the photo, you can see that no foliage is showing and in these cases, the bulb itself is barely visible. They are planted very shallowly as well and the best time is after they have bloomed and before they send up the strappy leaves for replenishing the bulb.

These Naked Ladies were planted about 10 years ago and I wish I could remember how many there were at the time they went into the ground.  As you can see the clumps form around a single bulb and are in various stages of emerging from the dead leaves.  As these are outside my fence, they have not been affected by deer or gophers and have increased readily.  The first sign of the bloom is a triangular, pointed spear and they grow quickly and begin to bloom with others following.  They also spread by seed as the next photos will show.

These two are at the bottom of the slope and probably have formed from seed. In a well tended garden, the dried foliage would be removed.

Above, naked ladies have been spread by birds from seed. They are across the driveway from the patch outside my fence pictured above and are about two years old. They are emerging among young herbaceous peony plants and have increased from the one flower last year or the year before. The next photo will show the depth of the bulb grown from seed – almost none!

One of the things I appreciate about this bloom is the lavender, blue tinged stem. There is a third stem coming out of the smaller bulb on the right. I’m tempted to scatter some of the seed this year in a known spot to see how long it takes them to germinate!

This volunteer Naked Lady shows how tall (over 3 feet) it can grow, probably because it is shaded. This one is emerging next to a large “Carefree” shrub rose and is exactly the same color combination.

Easy and satisfying, the Amaryllis Belladona is a special accent in the garden.