We have been having warm sunny days and cool pleasant nights. We experienced an episode of wild weather about once a week in March. Heavy rains, high winds, with a few hot mid-80s days thrown in, have given us Lion and Lamb days through March.

Wave after wave of wildflowers have been blooming since January and will continue as we are only three weeks into spring, the flowering season is just getting started. Dogwood trees seemed to bloom for only a short time this year, possibly because of rain and strong winds knocking the petals off.

Wisteria has been abundant and very fragrant, the scent carrying a long way in the moist night air. And, of course, it is everywhere; as it grows rampantly in our climate. The wisteria we see growing in large trees, cascading out of pine trees, and covering old buildings is an invasive vine imported due to its beauty, scent and hardiness. 

Wisteria floribunda, came from Japan. The descriptive second word in the botanical name (floribunda), the species word, always written in lowercase and follows the genus word (Wisteria), always capitalized; means abundant growth and how aptly it is named. The other non-native wisteria is W. sinensis; it is a Chinese native vine; both imported wisterias are from Asia.

Wisteria frutescens, the American native is rarely seen except in plant catalogs and gardens. It is slower growing and the flower clusters are smaller. It is a more civilized vine and does not have to be pruned every month or more, to keep it controlled.

I have always admired the tree-looking wisterias. Some dedicated gardener kept the vines, all the sucker sprouts and all the root sprouts cut off for 11 months to get the magnificent umbrella-form covered in lilac/ purple petals hanging in grape-like clusters. A definite specimen piece, even the foliage is pretty year round due to its form.

A few patches of small white lilies, commonly called Easter lilies, due to their white color and time of bloom are popping up. They are a member of the Zephyranthes genus, they are often grouped as zephyr lilies and include many small single-flowering lilies including pink-flowering Z. candida, rain lilies; and Z. pedunculata, fairy lilies.

The zephyr group are perennial as are most bulbs, they only reach six to eight inches tall. The single flowers grow on a scape that extends a little above the foliage, the foliage is narrow and medium green. The bulbs can tolerate wet sites and still multiply through the years. 

The best sites to see them are in the wide ditches along the highway between Valdosta and Lakeland. The area often stands under water if we have rainy days close together. 

The other best site I know of is out the Quitman Highway several miles, the flowers are down in the ditches, the roadbed is built high above ground level and the train track is elevated on a trestle. Again, this site is underwater for several weeks in rainy times. The lilies grow in colonies and you may see a dozen or a hundred in one small area. The little lilies do grow in lots of other spots, but often only in smaller numbers. 

Many older well-established lawns and gardens will have a small group or two scattered about. They bloom early and the foliage grows until late summer storing energy for next year’s blooms, before it fades away.

Amaryllis are blooming in many yards around town and the county. They produce huge lily-shaped flowers at the top of their scape (leafless stem that holds flowers), a scape will have up to six flowers per scape. Four flowers are considered perfect, more are even better if size is maintained. 

All flowers are in many shades of red, pink, coral and white; all flowers on a scape will all be the same color and pattern, all scapes from one bulb will be the same. Some flowers have wide flaring petals, other bulbs may have small, more closed petals, more like a true lily-shape.

It is fun to pollinate the flowers, eventually gather the seed and plant them within two to three weeks of harvest, the sooner the better. To pollinate one flower choose two flowers you like; usually large flaring petals, strong bulb growth, strong upright scape to support flowers and good color. Each flower has reproductive organs unless it is a double-flowering type, their pistol and stamen have been turned into petals for the “double” petals.

From the center of the flower, a group of pollen bearing stem-like, yellow pollen-tipped male reproductive organs grow; they are shorter than the one pistol, the female pollen accepting organ that grows from the center of the bloom also. When ready to be pollinated, the pistol will turn upward and develop into three small lobes, it is then ready to accept pollen produced by other plants. That is the time to pollinate your amaryllis blooms. 

Pinch or snip off two or three pollen-tipped stamen and brush or daub the pollen onto the pistol’s tip. When you see the yellow dust on the pistol, you have pollinated the flower. Always use pollen from another plant, the offspring will have traits of each parent, some plants are not self-fertile. Use fresh pollen, not from old fading flowers; pollen is alive and its strength can fade over three days or so.

Do not pollinate every flower on a scape, about half is enough; you don’t want to weaken the bulb by draining too much of its food store to grow seeds.

After pollination, a seed pod will develop where the base of the flower grew. Over a few weeks, a walnut-sized green pod appears on the top of the scape, one seed pod for every flower pollinated. The pod will grow and ripen to a beige color, cracks along the pod seams will appear, if weather is good let them ripen a couple of days, if windy or rainy, once the pod splits it can be cut off near the top of the scape, leave a second pod if not ripe, they may have bloomed a few days apart. 

Let the pod continue drying for a couple of days inside, the seed should easily fall out of the pod if brushed with your fingers. Do not seal in a plastic bag, the seeds need to breathe and complete drying. The seeds are silky black discs, paper-thin with an inner moist real seed, that is the part that germinates.

If you pollinate your amaryllis flowers and they produce seed, the offspring will be hybrids and may have surprising color or pattern traits. It is fun to see what unusual flowers you will get when the seeds grow into bulbs and bloom. I have enjoyed amaryllis hybridizing for many years. One year picotees came out of a crossing; they are flowers of white or pale pink with contrasting veins and a border around the edge of the flower in a deeper color. That color pattern is so pretty to me.

I lost about 400 bulbs to the evil amaryllis weevil over a decade ago and of course, they ate the most beautiful ones first, maybe they tasted better. Don’t have near that many now but do try to keep them protected from that awful weevil. 

The adult bores into the side, shoulder or down through the foliage to get inside the bulb and lay eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae begin to eat the bulb; they are short, whitish and fat, like a maggot. By the time they destroy the inside of the bulb, it has developed a very bad smell, like a small dead animal. The worms will eat everything except the papery shell of the few outer layers and the basal plate on the bottom.

Use Imidacloprid in a granular form and apply to the soil around and on the bulb throat. This systemic insecticide will protect for about four months, then another application will be needed. Lowe’s is the only place in town I know that has it; last year, the cost was $10 for 10 pounds. This will kill or repel the adults and you will never have bulb-destroying larvae. The worms also kill Lycoris radiata, red spider lilies that bloom in fall.

I think I’m out of space and have rambled too long. See you in a couple of weeks.

Susan Grooms lives and gardens in Lowndes County.