Amaryllis belladonna blooming aka the Naked Lady flowers

[Tracy]

The backdrop for this Amaryllis belladonna should have been an Encephalartos lanatus, as both are native to the Olifants River Valley in South Africa.  Unfortunately, my E lanatus is no longer of this world.  Instead the backdrop is another Encephalartos species.  If you are growing this flower, what are you growing it with?

[yeye]

Such beautiful flower ! i remember my trip at Madeira and Acores island!! A lot of these beauties anywhere !

So sad for your lanatus ! What happened to it ?

 

[Tracy]

17 hours ago, yeye said:

So sad for your lanatus ! What happened to it

It always battled with scale infestations and eventually succumbed in a weakened state to what appeared to be rot.  In my coastal climate, the finer leafed Encephalartos seem to be particularly vulnerable to scale infestations including E caffer and on younger specimens of E cerinus.  Maybe if it had gotten bigger.  Back to the A belladonna, my wife received these as bulbs and planted them in a few spots, and this was the first one to bloom.  We had never grown them ourselves.  Her mother had some in her yard, and we never paid attention to them until they had blossoms.  She was a bit surprised when the bulb started putting out leaves, as she knew they always bloomed "naked" of foliage.  Sure enough the leaves died eventually leaving just the bulb again.   Then a couple of months later, out sprouts the flower, with not a single living leaf on the plant.

[Silas_Sancona]

A. belladonna are one of those old school plants i myself would consider a "California Classic"  that is most commonly seen around older, established residences, particularly those associated with former ranches or farms, at least up where i grew up in San Jose. Seeing masses of these start their annual bloom cycle was a sure sign that summer was coming to an end, and the school year was starting again ( .. back when everyone started in September right after Labor Day, instead of mid- August )

Easy to grow, and extremely drought tolerant. Have seen these growing in weedy, sun-baked roadside corners with flowers emerging up through the tangle of old skirts of feral CIDP and Mex Fans where no extra water was provided. Seem to do best where they are left to their own after establishment, and not babied.  Individual bulbs separated from larger clumps can be a bit reluctant to flower for the first couple years after planting but eventually snap out of it and resume doing their thing. Older clumps are a real treat when up to a dozen flower stalks are in full bloom at once. Quite fragrant up close also. 

As great as the standard form is, there are a few variants with flowers leaning more red or closer to white. There is also a cross done between A. belladona and Crinum available. 

Would probably look great planted beside other naked late summer bloomers like Lycoris, Rhodophiala, Sprekelia, and a rare Hymenocallis from Texas that flowers without leaves as well. It supposedly can flower with it's leaves in spring, than pushes leafless flower stalks mid/late summer. Was supposedly collected far removed from the wet, swampy conditions many Hymenocallis like.

[Palm crazy]

They are in full bloom here also. One house up the street from me has about a dozen or more in the front yard and they never water them. I've also seen hybrids of Amaryllis belladonna and crinum lily. Very low maintain blubs. They do the best here in full sun. If my garden wasn't so shady I grow them too.