Photo Credit: http://mardeross.com/amaryllis-belladona-bulbs-naked-lady-with-peonies-as-well/

On a walk through town I saw a familiar that aways signifies the end of summer for me: Amaryllis belladonna L. Here in the South Bay (west central coast?) you see them everywhere in late summer on the edges of dry gardens and fences, a stark contrast of rose rose pink and brown. With leaves covering the ground withered and hay colored, I immediately think of setting down my tiny garden chair wherever I see them to deliberately pinch those dry stems (a pastime that suits my need to groom plants; it will look better–to carefully pick until the brown and dry are all removed and cleared).

Their flower stems come out of the ground strong, green and brown, like they hail from another plant that had water and fertilizer all summer. The Belladonna’s defiant nature makes me smirk with a name that make me think of Linnaeus’ 18th century notebook: traveling? in a South American jungle, missing cool climates and baffled by a flower that opens after it sheds its leaves. Linnaeus’ association of a ‘pretty woman’ with a flower without leaves; his gaze/ power to rename and assign a gender to a flower that has all the sex parts. But it’s the timing of this bloom that makes me realize, summer is coming to an end. Relief because soon it will be the best time of the year.

We might pine for such a display of color in the winter time (not even the second-best time of the year). The Naked Lady’s close relative Hippeastrum or Amaryllis that many associate with the holidays in December, usually shows up ‘fully clothed’ in winter and magnificently helps to redeem the winter darkness and indoors with its flower glory in red, pink and white. The Christmas lily won’t grow outdoors in my region and so it’s the naked summer cousin that reminds me how much I believe bulbs are the among the best plants in the world for often being the forgot-I-planted-you-and-thanks-for-showing-up-despite-never-watering-you plants in the garden, side of the street, or in a field that you never noticed before these lovely flowers showed up.