Naked ladies that are tall, curvaceous and rosy pink probably
sound pretty enticing to some. But I’m sorry to disappoint my male
readers, but this column is about the flower bulb
”
naked ladies,
”
not the other kind.
Naked ladies that are tall, curvaceous and rosy pink probably sound pretty enticing to some. But I’m sorry to disappoint my male readers, but this column is about the flower bulb “naked ladies,” not the other kind.
Believe it or not, there are naked ladies popping up all over the place this time of year – along highways, in weed-infested vacant lots and, yes, even in manicured gardens. They stand out like Twiggy at a Weight Watchers’ convention. Technically called Amaryllis belladona and sometimes known as belladonna lilies, they still are most often simply referred to as good ol’ naked ladies. If you don’t personally know them, I urge you to make their acquaintance as they are one of the most foolproof – and beautiful – bulbs we can grow.
I always laugh to myself when I check the “page hits” statistic sheet for a similar garden column that I write for an Internet site. I wrote about “naked ladies” way back in August of 1998, but the column still always leads by far regarding “hits” by Internet lurkers. Just this past May, for instance, there were 1,513 hits on my August 1998 column on naked ladies. My next most popular column generated only 115 hits during the month.
The reason for the racy common name of these flower bulbs are obvious once you’ve set eyes on them. You see, during summer, naked ladies are popping up all over, with their pink, fragrant flowers blooming atop 2-foot-high stalks that just happen to be totally leafless – “naked,” if you will.
The trumpet-like flowers put on a show, having six to 12 flowers to a cluster. Flowers are large, about 3 inches in diameter. While light pink is the most common color, they’re also available in red, mauve and white, usually with contrasting yellow throats.
“Where’s the leaves?” you might be asking. Well, these hardy bulbs have a strange life cycle. The strap-like, deep green leaves appear in spring and die away long before a single flower blooms. By midsummer in our South County area, the foliage is gone, making way for the naked ladies.
Don’t let the delicate pink flowers fool you, though. Naked ladies are tough as nails. The leafless flower stalks appear literally out of nowhere, usually popping through rocky, parched ground in such unusual places as highway median strips or vacant lots.
Ideal drought-resistant plantings, naked ladies will grow in almost any soil with very little care or fuss. They will survive and bloom with no extra water other than what Mother Nature provides. Planted alone, naked ladies really do stand out, which is precisely what some gardeners desire. About the only thing you really have to remember about them is that the bulbs don’t like to be moved or disturbed. If you invade their privacy during the wrong season, they will have temper tantrums and may refuse to bloom for years. If you must transplant them, do so when roots and leaves are not actively growing, namely immediately after blooming.
It should be noted that these type of Amaryllis should not be confused with the large-flowering bulb commonly sold around Christmas. Naked ladies are a prolific, garden-tough gal or a showy belle of the ball that is definitely worth knowing.
