Magic Lily Bulb

Most of the tricks garden plants play on us are disappointing, so Magic Lily's dramatic, overnight late-summer bloom is all the more welcome. One of the stars of the sunny garden, this reliable performer puts on the final show of the season, offering large, bold trumpets of rosy-pink just as the bright annuals and perennials are fading.

The glossy early-spring foliage passes and dies back weeks or even months before the blooms appear, and you may have forgotten all about them (or reluctantly chalked up a garden failure) when suddenly, almost literally overnight, the blooms open atop thick, leafless stems. The 2½-foot stalks are a useful size for the border or bed—not tall enough to need staking, yet definitely a stately presence.

The blooms are 2 to 3 inches across, their long petals bent back a bit to reveal a golden throat and prominent russet anthers. Long-lasting and quite abundant, they look too good to be true, but require nothing from you except admiration.

The pink cast of these blooms led to the common name of Naked Ladies, but the flowers are also called the Resurrection Lily and Surprise Lily. Of course, it turns out that they aren't lilies at all (that would be too easy), but a member of the Amaryllis family.

The original "plant and forget" bulb, Magic Lily asks only full sun and reasonably well-drained soil. Does not bloom the first year.