Belladonna Lilies

Belladonna Lily 

The Belladonna Lily, Amaryllis belladonna, is a beautiful flower. It comes from South Africa and thrives in places with similar climates including California and South Australia. The leaves grow in the winter and the flowers in summer. In the Northern hemisphere they flower around August and south of the equator in February.

Because the leaves grow in the wet part of the year, the plant is drought resistant and will usually grow well without water, although I have found that extreme dryness during flowering does affect them. The bulbs are large and the plant is usually reproduced from the bulbs. It can be grown from seed. The seeds appear after the flowers. These have a much higher water content than most seeds. If left, the survival rate of these seeds is usually low. They need to be planted fairly soon after being produced.

If the bulbs become too crowded they can be replanted. The best time to do this is probably after the flowers have died down and before the leaves start to appear.

The flowers are usually pink although white and red flowers also exist as well as variations of these.

Steve Challis