Note: This blog post contains a compendium of photos taken and text written between 2013 and 2018. In 2012 I planted my first oxblood lily bulbs (Rhodophiala bifida) and they bloomed to my great delight in 2013. I ordered more of them online in 2014 and 2017, and have been a big fan of them ever since. These charming and brilliant scarlet autumnal flowers emerge annually with late summer or early fall rains, the flowers appearing first on leafless stems and the foliage coming up a month or two later. The thin, straplike leaves are green and active all winter, even during subfreezing weather, and die back in April or May to remain hidden underground through the summer. This dormancy during the harshest heat of the year and ability to activate with adequate rains or irrigation is part of what makes them adaptable to the deserts of the desert southwest. They also survive extremely well in the southeastern USA in much wetter climates as long as it’s not too frigid in winter. (USDA Zones 8-10 are suitable in both dry western and wet eastern climates.)

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From Sept 13, 2013:

Oh wow, I think I might just have a sudden new favorite plant: The oxblood lily, Rhodophiala bifida! Last year I saw a FB photo post from one of my Facebook friends who commented on how these moderately-small bulbs were blooming beautifully all over Austin, Texas where he lives, after some late summer rains there. I was entranced by the deep cardinal red and commented on the picture about how striking they were.

Oxblood lilies flower in front of some of my collection of glass garden gazing balls. Oreocereus trollii haunts the background under the shade of a juniper tree.

Another friend from Las Vegas, Nevada saw this exchange and told me that they did well in southern Nevada and did I want some? Yes, of course! So he generously mailed me about 8 or 10 bulbs, which arrived last September (2012) with foliage. I planted them in two patches along the front pathway, near my gray water drains, and they appeared to do all right in spite of the stress of being dug while in leaf (not how you typically ship bulbs), shipped in a dark box for a few days, and transplanted.

Oxblood lilies in their first day of bloom. Late summer rainfall inspires them to flower and start growth, which continues over the winter cool season. They go dormant by spring and remain hidden in the hot, dry summer months. This lifestyle pattern is common in many amaryllis-like bulbs from Mediterranean climates, and some of them adapt well to desert living too.

The narrow grasslike leaves died back sometime in mid-winter and I sort of forgot about them. Until I saw a few green shoots poking forth about two weeks ago as the rainy spell we’ve just had got going. Once again, I didn’t pay much attention to the emergence of the leaves because I didn’t expect them to bloom this year, but boy was I wrong. I just saw all of these open outside my window about an hour ago, and I was absolutely not expecting them yet and did not see them coming. What a glorious surprise! Any plant that looks like this and can make me feel astonished gets extra favorite points. Thus it immediately joins the ranks of my many favorite plants. (Why have just one?) I have read that they are long-lived, and that they will divide and multiply. I’m looking forward to growing these beauties for many more years.

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From Sept 13, 2015:

The shallow rains of the past two storms totaling under .3 inches was apparently enough for one single oxblood lily to put forth its scarlet head. I expect to see many more as soon as we get enough rain to bring the rest of them up. They are lying poised for action beneath the soil surface and I believe that any rain of more than a half inch will bring most of them up into the sun. I planted well over 100 of these bulbs last year and am interested to see how they do, just as soon as weather permits. The red-spined cactus is Denmoza rhodacantha and planting the oxbloods as companions next to it was a design choice.

Oxblood lilies appear to respond more favorably and reliably to actual rainfall than to artificial watering. Irrigation is spotty and generally does not wet the entire soil profile on a large scale in the same way that rainfall does. Additionally, a temperature drop also seems to stimulate them, another thing more likely to arrive with a true rainfall rather than with irrigation. I have watered in or near these lilies and seen little to no response from them. Then a good rain comes and suddenly they pop up within 3 days. It’s really interesting to watch.

I had several of these come up as isolated individuals in different places in late July 2015 as well, but July seems to be a month or six weeks early for most of them them here in western Arizona. They didn’t last long since various critters promptly chewed off the flower stalks and left them laying there to dry in the hot sun, uneaten. How annoying! It looked like bird damage. The birds also ate any and all green leaves that tried to emerge on anything that tried to sprout like regular amaryllis (Hippeastrum), Zephyranthes rain lilies, and Aztec lilies (Sprekelia). I may not be able to grow these plants if they attempt to grow in summer and the foliage is pecked apart as soon as it reaches an inch tall. Dammit. Very frustrating.

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From Sept 20, 2017:

In mid-September 2017 I placed an order of oxblood lily bulbs (Rhodophiala bifida and R. bifida hybrids), which arrived on Sept 19. They are very nice, and generally larger than I anticipated, which should translate to better blooming next year. Some may put out a few flowers this fall when planted, but I would not expect too much for 2017 as the bulbs will spend more of their effort rooting and putting out leaves and recovering this coming winter, storing energy for a nice 2018 bloom cycle.

Note: I headed to Chile for a second trip in late September 2017, partly in an effort to see other species of Rhodophiala in bloom after the wet winter and spring the northern Atacama and central Santiago regions had in 2017, alongside whatever other wildflowers managed to emerge. See posts tagged with “Chile” for further information on all those topics.

Left to right in this photo: Orange-red Rhodophiala hybrids about 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) in diameter with flower stalks about 14 inches (35 cm) tall; large size scarlet R. bifida, “Hill Country Red” (the most commonly available form) about 2 inches (5 cm) diameter; small size R. bifida, “Hill Country Red” about 1.5 inches (3.7 cm) in diameter; and lastly, pink forms of R. bifida, seed-propagated with variable coloration about 1.5 inches (3.7 cm) in diameter.

I have not tried the pink form and orange-red hybrids here in Arizona before, but suspect that they will do just fine based upon the good performance of the “Hill Country Red” type which has flowered reliably in early September for me for 5 years now. The red selection is a mostly sterile triploid that rarely sets any seeds unless almost forcibly crossed with a fertile diploid, but the pinks are the most common type seen in the wilderness of Uruguay and Argentina where they are native. I see no reason why they won’t do well in Arizona and numerous other places from western Oregon and California all the way to the Carolinas and coastal Virginia. The orange-red hybrids are crosses of “Hill Country Red” with other species, including a rare “giant” orangish-red type of R. bifida called R. b. granatiflora, which refers to the pomegranate-colored flowers (Punica granatum). This is my first time trying the granatiflora types, so we will see how they do.  I am excited to try them and expect good things.

A closer-up view of the orange-red hybrids to the left, and the large “Hill Country Red” type to the right. The bulbs were obviously about to bloom when dug, and continued developing in the box during shipping. I’ll plant them and hope for the best, but as long as the leaves and roots survive I will be satisfied.

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From Monday, July 23, 2018:

We got a bit of rain in July 2018, about 1.4 inches spread out across three storms spaced three weeks apart. This is good but summer heat ensures that it’s not as effective as it would be at a cooler time of year since water evaporates quickly in the desert dryness that inevitably returns shortly after rains. Still in between the rain and the watering I do in this section of the gardening, it was enough to bring up the first few of the pink and orange-red hybrid oxbloods that I planted in Sept 2017.

The first pink and red oxblood lilies arise from the soil. You can see hints of leaves and other flower spikes also emerging. The Agave is possibly a variant of Agave wocomahi originating from near Tonichi, Chihuahua, Mexico.

I planted all these oxbloods in the garden section right in front of my house, where I can see them multiple times daily from the kitchen window and whenever I step outside. The foreground cactus and agaves are also new installations as of July and August 2018.

A brief explanation of the planting site above: The area shown was not fully planted before the summer of 2018. The main reason is that the spot had once been crowded with construction materials like stacks of papercrete blocks and plywood forms, and needed to be cleaned up first, which I did in summer 2017. Some of the items closer to the house, i.e in the background of this image, have actually been planted for years like the totem pole cactus (Lophocereus schottii monstrosus). But the ones in the foreground have all been planted only a few months at most. Some of those pots I’ve held onto in my nursery for years, awaiting the time for me to finally accomplish the cleanup of this prominent and visually important space.

Another factor is that the juniper trees also needed pruning to lift the low-hanging foliage upwards, a task also accomplished in late 2017. With all of this cleanup finally done, it was finally ready for real plantings! I planted the lilies in isolation last year, and have been adding the succulents around them this year. With additional watering many more lilies came up despite a total lack of rainfall in August and September 2018. I didn’t take too many photos of them, however, because I needed to cage the area with chickenwire lest pestiferous birds and squirrels peck and gnaw all the new plants to pieces. Since wire cages look terrible, I just didn’t want to photograph them. This is temporary and hopefully as everything grows larger and tougher I can remove the wire caging in the future. But the bulbs did look amazingly good, and since they are not sterile I even got an abundant seed crop.