White Flower Hymenocallis harrisiana

Ask the Expert: identify night bloomer
the flower blooms randomly every few years & starts blooming @ dusk & completes a bloom cycle in ~5 minutes.  i'd appreciate you identifying it & providing any online info that is available about it.  thanks - ed johnston

Plant Expert Reply:

You have a type of Hymenocallis probably a Peruvian daffodil (Hymenocallis harrisiana) or a Spider lily (Hymenocallis acutifolia).  The plants all in the Amaryllidacaea family.  They are bulbous perennials.

Different species of this plant have different blooming cycles. The first hymenocallis will bloom in spring followed by summer blooming ones and finally autumn blooming ones. You can find them in a native habitat in  United States from Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, south to the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas. They are also found in Mexico, Central America and South America.

You can find more information about hymenocallis at http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HYLI.

Ask the Expert: I found this and was wondering what it was

Spider Lily

I found this flower on the side of the road and have never seen one like it. Can you tell me what type of flower it is?
Thank you. Suzanne

Plant Expert Reply:

The lovely white flower is commonly called Spider Lily.  It is a Hymenocallis. I'm not sure which Hymenocallis it is.  It could be one of the following: Hymenocallis lirisome, Hymenocallis littoralis or Hymenocallis occidentalis.  They usually bloom summer through autumn.

Yellow Wildflower

Wildflower Leaf

Ask the Expert: What Flower is this?
4 to 6 foot tall
Multiple blooms up to 3 inches in diameter Paul

Plant Expert Reply:

This one was a little tricky the bloom looks like one kind of plant and the leaf another.  However, I believe the wildflower you have is a Rudbeckia laciniata.  It is a perennial hardy in zones 3-9.  It will bloom from mid-summer ot mid-autumn.

Ask the Expert: What is this flower?

ZInnia

Planted Butterfly Weed seeds (Asclepias tuberosa) from a seed packet and this plant seed was in this packet with them. I like the plant and don't know if perennial or annual. It is close to 3 feet tall now with 1 to 2 and a half inch pink flowers with 12 to 15 petals. I would like to know it's name in case it does not come back next spring. Thanks D Jackson

Plant Expert Reply:

From the look of the leaves and the blooms, it is a type of Zinnia.  It could be Zinnia elegans which is an annual and will not come back next year.  Or it could be a Zinnia angustifolia  which is also an annual.

Although they are not perennials, the seeds that have dropped may come up the next year. If you like the look of this flower, type profusion zinnias.  I have them in my garden and love them. We have been growing and selling them at our garden center for over 5 years.  They are easy to care for and perform very well under hot summer temperatures.  If you don't like to deadhead, you'll like the profusion.  Even when I forget to deadhead this plant it still goes like gangbusters.

Ask the Expert: Help identifying flower

Hymenocallis liriosme - Spider Lily

This one popped up in our pasture all by itself at the base of a shady hill. No others like it around. It's about 18 inches high, with no leaves, just the hollow stalk.
Look familiar? David

Plant Expert Reply:

Do you come from a large family? Well this flower does (Amaryllidaceae).  As a result many of the members have the same common name or nickname.  For this plant the common name is Spider lily and is used in association with other plants in the family. Besides spider lily, the flower goes by spring spider lily.

With plants the advantage is every plant must have a botanical name that is associated with them only.  In this case, it is Hymenocallis liriosme.  It is a native plant in AR , LA , MS , OK,  and  TX; growing flood plains, bottomland, ditches, ravines, repressions, marshes, stream banks, prairie, plains, meadows, pastures, and savannahs.  They originate from bulbs and are aromatic with a lemony scent.

Ask the Expert: Is this an Orchid?

Oriental Lily

My neighbor has this plant with beautiful purple & white flowers.  I think it is an Orchid, but could not find any photos that looked like it.  I want to ID it, so I can buy some for my garden.  I hope that it is a perennial & can take full sun.

Do you know what it is?

Thanks, Rob

Plant Expert Reply:

Although the plant has an exotic presentation with it long stem and multiple blooms, it isn't an orchid. What you neighbor has is a common Oriental lily. I'm not sure exactly which cultivar.   These beautiful blooms come from a bulb that is hardy in zones 3-8. Once planted they come back year after year and multiply.  Oriental lilies are planted in the spring.  However, in some zones they are planted in the fall as well.

Oriental lilies usually bloom in the summer and their cousin Asiatic liles bloom 4 to 5 weeks earlier with a similar form and bloom.  They prefer full sun to partial shade.  They need to be planted in an area that drains well all year long.  You can find Oriental lilies at your local garden center.  Be sure to ask them how to amend the soil specifically for oriental lilies in your area.

Oriental lilies can also be used as cut flowers in flower arrangements.

Ask the Expert: may have old world daylily
plant foliage comes up in spring looks similar to daffodil but larger. leaves die back during july. after leaves die back stem grows out of ground to the height of 3 ft. each stem produces lily like flowers 6 to each stem at the top of the stem in a circle.  color white at edges pink at center, 6 petals to each flower delicate daylily look.if you may have a clue let me know i will give more info. Donna

Plant Expert Reply:

Surprise Lily (Lycoris squamigera)

I believe you have, what we call in the mid-south, a surprise lily.  So named because it seems overnight to pop up a bloom stalk with blooms and no appearance of leaves.  Surprise lilies (Lycoris squamigera) are sometimes called naked lily, resurrection lily, magic lily, mystery lily, hardy amaryllis, or Guernsey lily.  They come from a bulb and can be planted right under sod.

Nerine Bowdenii Spider Lily

Another possibility is the Spider Lily (Nerine bowdenii) which is in the same family (Amaryllidaceae )  as Lycoris.

In fact, the common names for each are often assigned to the other one as well.  For example Nerine is sometimes called surprise lily, Guernsey lily and are produced from a bulb just like Lycoris.

Each type of lily comes in a range of colors from white to purple and even a reddish color. They like full sun to partial shade, but full sun produces the best blooming.  Once planted they will come up year after year without much care.

In my area, we call this a homestead plant.  Many old homesteads have this flowering blooming in their yards.

For more information about the Lycoris squamigera, check out Floridata surprise lily page.

For more information about the Nerine bowdenii, check out Pacific Bulb Society Nerine page.

If your flower looks different, sned me a picture and we will try to make a different idetification.

Ask the Expert: I was hoping you could help identify this flower
These photos were taken from a garden in the Chena Village, along the Chena River outside of Fairbanks in July of this year.  I was hoping you could identify them, and let me know if they were native.  Thank you!

- Margaret

Plant Expert Reply:
The flower you have so lovely captured in the photos above is Delphinium. Florists in Alaska, as well as in other places, use this flower in arrangements because it is one of the few true blue flowers available to them.

Delphinium is a genus of 250 annuals, perennials and biennials. In 1998 while vacationing in Alaska, I saw some of the tallest delphinium I had ever seen. It was in the garden of a lady who was a sled dog racer. I believe Delphinium is native to Alaska. If it isn't it should be, we saw it everywhere during our two week stay.

Some may call this plant larkspur. The terms are often confused and used interchangeably. However, Larkspur and Delphinium are not really the same plant but closely related. In your pictures the blossom shape looks more like Delphinium.

Ask the Expert: Can you identify this flower?

Veronica spicata

My wife and I saw this flowering plant in a garden near our home and we were intigued.  It stands only about a foot tall and the blue flowering stems are only about 6 inches in length.  I have attached a picture.  Can you identify it for us? Cliff

Plant Expert Reply:

It looks like a perennial called Veronica spicata,  possibly 'Darwin Blue' or 'Royal Candles'.  I have a different Veronica spicata  cultivar 'Blue Bouquet' in my garden and I love it.  It performs very very in my area and is an attractive backdrop for the soft pink ground cover rose in my garden.  Veronica is also known as Speedwell and a fantastic summer bloomer.

Hoya Flower & Leaf

Ask the Expert: What is this plant?
Hi,
A friend of mine had a plant that he inherited with his office.  It had nice shiny leaves that grew on long vines.  They're about 4' long.  Green with small white spots.  I took a clipping.

It took some years (3), but it finally stared to grow.  It just grows and grows.  It never bloomed until a few weeks ago (3 more years), and then I got these little sprays of 5-petal pink flowers that are about 1/2' across.  There are 17 on one spray.

What is this and what do I do with the flowers?

Thanks,
Kevin Ansley

Plant Expert Reply:

Your plant goes by the name Hoya , wax flower, wax plant, wax vine.  The genus for this plant is Hoya and it has many species within this genus.  I believe from the bloom and the leaf that you have Hoya carnosa.

You probably have noticed that the blooms are very fragrant.  You don't have to do anything with the blooms until they are spent. When the bloom has deteriorated beyond attractiveness simply cut it away from the vine.