At lunchtime today I stopped at a sandwich shop where I had never been before and talked a bit with the man behind the counter who was from South Africa.

I came home and walked out into the garden and discovered another import from South Africa was blooming in the garden. This is Amaryllis belladonna, sometimes called ‘naked ladies’ because they bloom on bare stems that just shoot out of the ground a day or two before the blooms appear. When I moved here I found a mass of these big bulbs growing in a very dark corner where they did not bloom. I moved a few of them here and later some others to diferent spots. These are the only ones that have done well, possibly because they are in a raised bed where they can stay dry.

More bulbs come from South Africa than from anywhere else. Bulbs are possibly the most inert of plant forms, which enables them to conserve energy in hot, dry conditions.