Amaryllis Belladonna Requires Very Little Attention

Amaryllis is Greek feminine and is named after a beautiful shepherdess. The specific epithet belladonna means beautiful lady. The appearance of the tall, flower stalk without any leaves accounts for the common name "naked lady". Amaryllis belladonna in its natural habitat is found in small dense groups among rocks.

Therefore the best place to plant them would be in a rock garden. In a created landscape, Amaryllis can be used mixed in between blue Agapanthus as a good combination, as the evergreen leaves of the Agapanthus provide skirts for the naked ladies. They can also be grown between a ground cover or mixed annual or herbaceous border.

Growing Amaryllis belladonna

The cultivation of Amaryllis belladonna requires very little attention. Amaryllis belladonna can be grown from seed. The soft fleshy white to pink seed should be planted when fresh. Dispersal of seed in winter is normally by wind. Seed dispersal is timed to coincide with the first winter rains in late March and April. Germination can occur in two weeks, but seedlings require three to six years or longer to flower.

Large clumps of bulbs can be divided from the mother bulb during the dormant period. The bulbs and offsets can be planted immediately. The bulbs must be planted with their necks at soil level. The belladonna lily can also be grown in large pots using a very porous soil mix. The bulb can also tolerate quite arid conditions. In cultivation flowers are produced almost every year but in the fynbos they emerge prolifically after fires.

There is still some mystery as to what pollinates the March lily. Rudolf Marloth, a famous amateur botanist, believed that the belladonna lily was being pollinated by a hawk moth. It was also noticed that large carpenter bees visited the flowers during the day. On the Cape Peninsula, at least, it seems that bees are the main pollinators of the March lily.

Amaryllis belladonna is often attacked by a highly destructive black and yellow striped caterpillar called lily borer. The caterpillar bores into the leaves and stem of the lily causing the flowering stem to collapse. The caterpillar eventually enters the bulb. The caterpillars can be removed by hand or the affected foliage can be cut off.

The family Amaryllidaceae forms a large group of over sixty genera, which are mainly centred in the southern Africa with smaller distributions in Andean South America. Other genera that belong to this family that have horticultural importance and are found in southern Africa include Clivia, Crinum, Cyrthanthus, Nerine and Scadoxus.

Hippeastrum, which some gardeners mistakenly call amaryllis, is a large South American genus. Other northern hemisphere genera include Narcissus (daffodils) and Leucojum.