Naked Ladies

Maybe it’s the hot weather, but I’ve noticed a lot of naked ladies—everywhere.

I saw naked ladies in front of my neighbor’s house yesterday.

I saw naked ladies on the hike I took with my dog this morning, and this afternoon I saw a huge crowd of naked ladies on my way to Santa Cruz.

August is when I usually see naked ladies. They’re so tall and slender and pink.

And they smell so good. I never smell that good when I’ve been in the garden for a long time.

Naked Ladies, Amaryllis Belladonna, are native to South Africa. They are graceful pink tubular flowers that appear at the end of 24 to 30 inch stems in late summer. They grow from huge bulbs and are called naked ladies because of the plant’s habit of blooming after the foliage has died back, leaving a thick upright stem with a cluster of gorgeous, fragrant, light-pink flowers on top.

After the flower dies in the late summer or early fall, several long green strap-like leaves spout and grow to about 30 inches long and 1-2 inches wide.

The plant without the flowers is not very attractive. But the flower is spectacular. They do well in zone 9 and are very drought tolerant.

Even though you can grow Amaryllis Belladonna from seed, it’s best to grow them from bulbs because I’m told that it can take up to nine years for them to flower from seed.

Egads.

So plant these giant bulbs in spring, so you have lots of naked ladies running around your garden this summer.