From the mind that brought you Winter Games and An Existential Exercise, comes a summertime game. Can you spot the blooms of the Naked Ladies/a/k/a Magic Lilies a/k/a Resurrection Lilies (Lycoris squamigera) here?
How about here?
No? Neither can I because they aren't there. That's the problem.
While these things are blooming all over the Midwest right now, even at an unoccupied house for sale down the street, not one of mine is blooming. But, you say, how do we know there are any Lycoris there at all. (An excellent existential question. Sartre would be proud.) Okay here's the proof. This was taken in April.
This was taken today.
I haven't dug them out and they send up leaves every year, so I know they aren't dead. I don't get it. I've tried them in three different places around the property, I even fertilized them, and never a bloom. This has been going on for years. Are these some sort of special Lycoris that never bloom? They were divisions from plants that still bloom reliably every year (at my mom's house). Did someone put a no-Lycoris-bloom curse on me? I'm ready to give up on them.