While parked on a bench in the museum garden last evening, I noticed that a few "surprise" lilies had shot stalks up among the iris and were in bloom. These pale pink wonders, although native to Japan (introduced to North American gardens ca. 1880), ensured that I would not achieve a Zen-like state of calm attentiveness. I don't like them.
Officially Lycoris squamigera, they're also known as magic lilies, resurrection lilies --- even naked ladies. The bulbs, resting maybe four inches below ground, send up lush foliage in the spring that dies back promptly; the flowering stalks shoot up in early August.
They're OK, I suppose, if planted in perennial borders. But in this case, the bulbs had reproduced enthusiastically over the years underneath a bed where hybrid iris are expected to thrive --- wiping several out and leaving a bare-dirt wasteland behind when the foliage died back.
So I've been digging carefully among the iris for two years and have managed to remove about half a bushel of bulbs. Obviously, I've missed a few. I'll revist them in the spring.
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