Here’s a plant that is outside my kitchen right now that I’ve had for about 35 years (though it was a single bulb initially.) It is variously called a “ball of fire” or by some a “blood lilly”; 90% of the year it looks like bare dirt; once a year near the end of the year in our climate, without fail in my experience, each bulb produces a single spectacular flower, which lasts usually a few weeks and then dies off; the leaves spring up after, persist for a while, then they too die off and we are back to just dirt.
This year, we had an unusually early spectacular set of them… which then died off in unusually short order. You can see the old ones drooped down and dead here.
We had all assumed that was it for the year, and all before some of my most loved would be visiting, but then this one last one came up completely unexpectedly, and with perfect timing. I’m delighted!
