Growing Flowering bulbs in warm climates - Rain lily (zephyranthes)

This is 6th article in this series of growing warm climate bulbs. zephyranthes lily with synonyms rain lily, fairy lily, zephyr lily are very tough plants yet very aasy to flower warm climate bulbs. Not a true lily though,they are from amaryllis familly. Their flowering period is not confined, although they bloom after rains hence called rain lily. In my zone 10b, these bloom almost yer round but heavy blooming is in monsoon rains.Its local name is gul-e-nargis.

This is how the bulbs of pink rain lily looks like. It has the largest bulb as compared to the bulbs of white and yellow rain lilies.


Now they are mostly not available as bulbs but plants. And 1 plant includes many bulbs. They are best planted in groups. Sadly the flowers last just few days.

Growing conditions
Plant them in well drained soil so that they are just under the soil. Even the tip few centimeters above the soil is fine.
Give them full sun. Although they will benefit from shade in very hot afternoons like mine of 120 F.
They like being wet and then dry, then again wet and then dry again. This is how their blooming is triggered.
Give them some fertilizer off and on. I do not fertilize them at all and they bloom fine but this season i i will try some light fertilizer.

Winter protection
As long as temperature is over 4C they will do fine. Below that they might get damaged. Mine loose some of their leaves in winter (ours is mild around 4C) but most of foliage is retained.

Propagation
They are mostly grown from bulbs as bulbs keep producing offsets. For new varieties they are grown from seeds.

Varieties
 There are 3 common species. The most common and famous is pink rain lily, zephyranthes grandiflora. It blooms more easily and frequently as compared to other two. It has the largest flower of all species.
 
Then comes the white rain lily, zephyranthes candida. 

And the last one is yellow rain lily, Zephyranthes citrina or Zephyranthes sulphurea They are very common in lawrence gardens, self sow and pop up at odd places in summers.


There are some hybrids grown from seeds with some different colors including some bi colors but i am yet to find their seeds.

Update: Some varieties of rain lily i tried are following:
Zephyranthes labuffarosa:

Zephyranthes drummondii:

And last but not least here is a wonderful article on rain lilies by Zahrah Nasir. http://archives.dawn.com/archives/69398

Ixora, yellow rain lily and blue petunia flowering

Here are some of the pics for this edition of macro monday.










For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos

Rain lilies blooming in lahore

Rain lilies or zaphyr lilies are late summer bloomers specially after rainfall. they are available in many colors including pink, yellow and white. they self sow as well. they need to be pot bound to bloom. i am growing 4 bulbs in a 7 inches pot. botanical name of rain lily is zephyranthes lily. they are native to many other areas including india and pakistan.

strangely local gardeners or mali here call it nargis. although it is not nargis, nargis is botanically called narcissus and it normally treated as annual as compared to this zephyr lilies which are perennial here in lahore. note that these lilies like moist conditions and full sun to bloom. sadly, bulbs are not easily available here in lahore at modern seeds shops or even local nurseries. i got these bulbs as gift from a mali. i have got all the 3 above said colors and all are blooming except white one. note that these lilies need a dry period soon after rain spell. now you must be thinking that why not fool the plant with tap water thinking into rain....he he he.... try it... plants get to know you are trying fooling them :P


















an this is a bit smaller yellow one.