Fall Favorites

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. This time of year I’m reminded of fixing flowers for the happy second marriage of a friend because I used a native and an imported flower that are flowering right now. Both of them seem to pop up overnight. The native plant was Farewell to Summer which grows in sandy, dry soils. The imported plant was red spider lily and has been a staple of Southern gardens for hundreds of years and persists unless its foliage gets mowed down too often. Spider lily, Lycoris radiata, flowers before the leaves emerge, the photosynthesizing foliage appears after the blossoms are gone. In St. Matthews, there are several old houses where these flowers edge long forgotten paths, winding their way through gardens that now exist in memory but are reminders of those whose hands once cultivated those yards with love.