Following 33 yrs producing a gardening column for the Put up-Dispatch, Chip Tynan is retiring from the Missouri Botanical Back garden. We are rerunning some favored columns for a few months, but the backyard will resume the column before long. You should continue on to mail questions to the address below.
Q • A friend gave me a plant called a spider lily that I have expanding in my greenhouse. It experienced a beautiful fragrant flower with lengthy, slender white petals in late spring, and the foliage was nutritious until finally not too long ago. Now it just appears to be like unfortunate and droopy no make any difference what I do.
A • Hymenocallis are the vegetation most regularly termed spider lilies, a prevalent name they also share with Crinums. Hymenocallis are a team of tender bulbs in the amaryllis spouse and children from equally tropical and temperate locations of the planet.
Flowers have funnel-formed facilities surrounded by extensive, slender petals that give a spidery look to the bloom. Based on the species, some may be evergreen, retaining their leaves all through the 12 months. The foliage of other species dies back again totally in the course of their winter season relaxation time period. Hymenocallis of this variety are retained entirely dry until they show indications of new advancement again. Perhaps you have a deciduous species that is heading dormant? If this is the case, never battle the bulb, make it possible for it to dry out and die back. New expansion is not most likely to arise in advance of mid-spring.