The delightfulBlood Lily

Wilma Charles

While on a visit to an estate in Central Trinidad I saw a flowering plant that I also have in my garden. The group was admiring the plant while I wondered what all the fuss was about as this was a common plant seen in everybody’s grandma’s garden.

Not so, as I later learnt. When I showed the flower at my club’s meeting many of the members wanted a plant.

It was the blood lily also known as the African blood lily, Scadoxus multiflorus. It is one of a group of nine perennial bulbous plants. Prized for its brilliant colours it can be grown in containers or directly in the ground.

The estate owner informed us that he had bought the plant on one of his visits to Toronto, Canada as he was surprised to see it on sale there.

The blood lily blooms in our dry season. It is an evergreen with large succulent leaves and grows all year long in TT.

The long flower stalks push up from the soil with a ball of tightly closed flowers at the end of each stalk. The flower “balls” open over a period of days to become the beautiful “pom poms” that would last for more than a week.

The plant grows from bulbs. After blooming more bulbs are produced. The blood lily requires little care and perhaps that is the reason why it does so well in my garden.

This plant can be found throughout tropical and southern Africa and is the only member of this genus found in the Arabian Peninsula.

There are many more closely related species, most of them red in colour, although one is white but all called blood lilies in English. I have not seen the white one in TT. The ones in my garden are more orange than red and I’m so looking forward to this year’s blooms.

For further information contact the Eastern Horticultural Club at 357-5033, 720-2698 or easternhorticultural@hotmail.com The Club meets the first Saturday of every month (except public holidays) at 3 pm at Moreton Hall, Aramalaya Presbyterian Church, Cochrane Street, Tunapuna.