Bowden lily

Chihuahuan desert

Eastern Australian temperate forests

Edwards Plateau savanna

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New Zealand North Island temperate forests

Piney Woods

Puget lowland forests

Willamette Valley oak savanna

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) - among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Low water

Spacing

6"

Habit

Autumn-flowering Amaryllid bulb with bare flower stems topped by umbels of wavy-petalled bright-pink trumpet flowers, followed by strap-shaped winter leaves; the hardiest nerine, building into long-lived clumps

Care tips

•

Get the season the right way round: water through autumn and spring while it flowers and leafs, then keep it bone-dry and at rest through summer - watering the dormant bulb in summer is the usual way to rot and lose it.

•

Plant the bulb shallow, with its neck at or above the soil surface, in full sun against a warm, south-facing wall for the best flowering and the bulb baking it needs in its summer rest.

•

Leave it crowded and undisturbed - Nerine bowdenii flowers most freely from a tight, established clump, so resist lifting and spacing it out; divide only when a clump is genuinely congested or declining.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant the bulb shallow - with the neck at or above the soil surface - in spring or late summer, in sharp-draining soil in full sun, ideally against a warm, south-facing wall that bakes it through its summer rest. POWO (Kew) places it in the summer-rainfall Drakensberg uplands of South Africa, and that montane origin is the source of its hardiness.

Transplanting

Resents disturbance and flowers best left alone, so move it as little as possible. If you must relocate or split a clump, lift it as the foliage dies back in late spring or early summer, keeping the bulbs shallow, and accept that flowering will pause for a year or two while it re-establishes and re-crowds.

Early growth

After autumn flowering the strap-shaped leaves grow through winter and feed the bulb; keep the plant watered through autumn and spring while it is in leaf. As the foliage yellows in late spring let it go dry and dormant - do not water the resting bulb through summer.

Maturity

A mature clump pushes up bare stems each autumn carrying umbels of bright-pink trumpet flowers, flowering more freely the more crowded the bulbs become. In cold gardens a deep, dry winter mulch and a hot, sheltered wall give the best results.

Propagation

Propagated by separating offset bulbs from a crowded clump in late spring or early summer as the leaves die down, or by seed; because it flowers best when crowded, divide only when a clump is genuinely congested or declining.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Baptisia australis

Blue false indigo

A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue - the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Lobelia cardinalis

Cardinal flower

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Asclepias incarnata

Swamp milkweed

A more refined garden-behaved cousin of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) - same monarch host status and ecological value, but clumping rather than aggressively spreading, well-suited to rain gardens and consistently moist sites. Pink fragrant flower clusters from mid-summer through early fall; 2005 NC Wildflower of the Year. NC State tags Poisonous (cardiac glycosides) - the same toxicity that makes monarch caterpillars unpalatable to vertebrate predators.

A native upright perennial of central + eastern North American prairies, woodland margins, and open woods producing tall vertical spires of white tubular flowers in late spring. The species name "digitalis" honors a flower-shape resemblance to true foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) - but Penstemon digitalis is NOT toxic in the same way (NC State explicit: "lacks the toxicity associated with foxglove"). Specialist Penstemon mason bee (Osmia distincta) relationship per NC State. The popular 'Husker Red' cultivar adds burgundy foliage for foliage-color design.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Penstemon digitalis

Foxglove beardtongue

A bold, clump-forming evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for big rounded umbels of trumpet-shaped blue (or white) flowers held on tall bare stalks above arching, strap-shaped leaves in mid-to-late summer. It is widely sold as "lily of the Nile," but that is a misnomer - the plant is South African (the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), not from the Nile. Spectacular and easy in warm climates, this evergreen Agapanthus is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a container and overwintered under cover. The RHS has given several Agapanthus praecox forms its Award of Garden Merit and rates this evergreen species half-hardy (H3 - needs winter protection).

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Agapanthus praecox

African lily

Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'

Autumn-joy stonecrop

A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3 to 6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 24 inches. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.

Amaryllis belladonna, the belladonna lily (also Jersey lily, naked-lady, or March lily), is a bulbous perennial geophyte from the Western Cape of South Africa. It is grown for its dramatic autumn display: leafless stems carry umbels of 6-12 fragrant, funnel-shaped pink to rose flowers that appear before the strap-shaped leaves emerge (a hysteranthous "naked lady" habit). It suits the front-to-mid border, gravel and Mediterranean-style plantings, and large containers in a hot, sheltered, sun-baked spot. Be plain about two cautions: the bulb is only modestly frost-hardy (roughly USDA 8/9-11; RHS H4) and is best given the warmest, driest position available in cooler areas, and ALL parts of the plant are TOXIC, containing lycorine and related Amaryllidaceae alkaloids that cause vomiting and diarrhea if eaten by people or pets. It also naturalizes readily in mild Mediterranean climates, so site it where self-sown spread is welcome.

A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) - among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.

An architectural, branching perennial grown for the metallic steel-blue flush it takes on in summer: small, egg-shaped flowerheads, each ringed by a collar of spiny, silvery-blue bracts, are held on rigid, blue-tinted stems above a basal rosette of leathery, heart-shaped leaves. It is a tough, genuinely drought-tolerant plant for hot, dry, sharply drained, even poor sandy or gravelly soil in full sun - it resents rich, wet ground, where it rots and flops - which makes it ideal for gravel gardens and coastal, seaside plantings, and one of the best long-lasting cut and dried flowers. At the height of summer it is a magnet for bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. It is grown purely as an ornamental and is not eaten.

A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue - the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.