Premiering Friday, March 20, 2026!  

At 10 A.M. CDT, The Bulbmeister.COM is presenting a YouTube video that represents nursery flower bed preparation, transplanting of established plots, and mulching, doing as much as possible before Lycoris foliage began to emerge.

An early flush resulting from an historically warm winter season ended this process in mid-February, losing about two weeks to finish the job. That said, the warmer weather also made this an unusual time to get the job done at all. Normally, I would do this after foliage die-back at the end of June.

Don't miss your opportunity to join as we can watch together and share thoughts and comments live. I'm not experienced at vlogging, feeling that this could have been made much shorter if scripted, but I did not want you to miss thoughts I had during the whole process.

We've had a very hard two day freeze this week, and emerged spring foliage has been significantly damaged, probably less due to cold, alone, and more due to the unusually warm weather promoting active growth. The wind, too, has been horrendous this winter, exceeding winds we would normally see in April/May.

Please join me this Friday, March 20th, and let's just see how this goes. 

Recognizing that a new format can present new challenges, especially in resolving the technical issues, I'm pleased to announce that Bulbmeister.COM has been simplified and modernized to provide easier navigation. I do hope you will enjoy the new format, and I hope to continue to make improvements, now that I've taken the leap to update the site. Your feedback is much appreciated and can be provided through the updated contact form.

It is my pleasure to announce the official release of six new Lycoris sprengeri clonal selections, each selected from a diverse population developed over many years of careful observation. These are not the result of deliberate hybridization — they are superior individuals identified and increased from open-pollinated populations that consistently outperformed their peers. Each clone has been grown to a marketable population size before being offered.

All six selections share the following characteristics:

• Family: Amaryllidaceae
• Common names: Spider Lily, Surprise Lily, Hurricane Lily, Resurrection Lily, Magic Lily, Naked Ladies
• Height: 18–30 inches
• Hardiness: Zones 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Foliage: Spring foliage — among the hardier Lycoris for northern gardens
• Named by: Kelly Irvin, May 23, 2023

Bloom timing below is given relative to Lycoris squamigera, which serves as the reference standard.

These six selections represent years of patient observation and increase. Availability is limited by population size — contact the Bulbmeister or visit the shop for current stock. Additional selections from my own breeding program will be announced as populations reach marketable size.

In 2019, I made some Lycoris crosses and also collected bulk open-pollinated Lycoris seed, then I actually followed through and potted all crosses and some otherwise collected. I had not done this for ten years, but, then, only in the last couple did the crosses I had previously made receive enough evaluation to take the next step.

The seeds were planted in 3.5" pots, up to 16 per pot, and in flats, up to a rounded number of 250 per flat. That early winter I put the pots in an outdoor cold frame with supplemental infrared heat. During the winter the electricity tripped a couple of times, and I know I let them get too cold at least once. There was also the burden of manual venting, so I am certain I let them get too hot way too often. I never saw any activity in all the planted seeds, so I expected I had killed the seeds.

In the spring of 2020, after I was venting the frame 100% of the time, I inspected the drain holes at the bottom of the pots, and I carefully "dumped" a few pots to inspect for life, reinserting the soil medium, unbroken, back into the pots. Lo and behold! I found roots and/or bulbs. With this new knowledge, I removed the plastic from the cold frame and covered it with shade cloth for the remainder of the summer.

Enter November! I started noticing a leaf emerging here and there. Having acquired some more reliable (I hope) LED grow lights that promised to use less electricity and put off less heat, I transferred the pots and flats to my growth chamber. Very quickly leaves started to materialize, and the featured photo is how things looked this past Friday, December 11, 2020, approximately one month after transfer.

It is important to note that most of my crosses are spring foliage crosses, and Lycoris in this group generally don't begin to push foliage until early March. The picture of the flats is entirely this type, so, for now, I have to speculate that the current conditions in the growth chamber are encouraging early emergence, OR, things did not go exactly right last Spring, so the seedlings are desperate to accumulate energy. A few of the pots have fall foliage crosses or fall foliage open-pollinated selections, and some of these were the first to show leaves in early November.

Not pictured, because there's nothing to see, yet, are my 2020 crosses and collections, but they went straight into the growth chamber after planting. I am curious to see if any of them give me foliage in the Spring, which would prove to me that my 2019s experienced a measure of duress that may have delayed development. We shall see.

Friends,

If you enjoy growing flower bulbs in your landscape, you are also likely aware that the more unusual the species, the more costly it can be. So, the wise thing to do is to shop around if you want one. The genus, Lycoris, first entered the United States of America in 1854, so surprise lilies, or spider lilies, have been in the U.S. well over 150 years. Yet, this exceptionally beautiful genus is not experiencing widespread cultivation. I believe the reason is due to the fact that it is not suited well to the average gardener and non-gardener. Why? Foliage growth is not associated with bloom, so the foliage is likely mowed or cut down too early in the spring, and no plant will do well if its source of photosynthesis is cut short over and over, year after year. Lycoris foliage needs to be allowed to begin to “die back” or dwindle before cutting it back to the ground, allowing as many resources for the development, growth, and division of the bulb, as well as encouraging floral initiation.

There are some very easy solutions to avoid improper care of the foliage in the winter and spring.

1. If planting in the lawn, plant around the base of deciduous trees or fixed objects like fences and gas meters, so, that when mowing in the spring, the foliage is more easily avoided, even if hiring out the mowing to folks who wouldn’t know better. Curséd weed wackers! Optionally, intermingle with a daffodil planting, because the leaves from afar don’t look that much different than daffodil leaves, and everybody knows not to cut down daffodil foliage until 6 weeks after bloom, right? Right?
2. If planting in a flower bed, again they can be intermingled with daffodils, but they can also be planted under small trees or in other locations where foliage is enhanced by nearby plants that bloom during that same period of time.

Why go to the trouble of growing Lycoris, if you consider the above explanations to be extraordinary efforts?

Of how many flower bulb genera do you know that provide a prominent, colorful, hawk moth & hummingbird attracting bloom anywhere from the end of July onward into October (depending on variety/species)? The answer would be very few. Color! Prominent Color! And flower form can go from “spidery” to “trumpety".

I trust you will agree at this point that surprise lily just might be worth the effort it takes to strategically locate it in your landscape, but price can and should always be a consideration when buying plants for the landscape. Lycoris are significanly more expensive than commonly purchased bulbs like Muscari, Narcissus (daffodils) and tulips, but there’s a good reason for that. A Lycoris bulb takes at least THREE years to develop from seed or scale before it becomes blooming size. So, it, therefore, requires more time in the nursery before it can be presented to you as a blooming size bulb. Time is resources! Time is money! I will note here that vendors who sell Lycoris in pots are selling you a product that will not likely bloom for at least two more years. Dormant importers may sell you a flowering size bulb, but the way it was prepared for transport affects its ability to recover and may still lead to a delay of a couple years, if not more. Essentially, the bulbs really need to still keep their roots during dormancy, and the roots would not survive the long process of import into the U.S.

So, why buy from Bulbmeister, really?

All of my Lycoris are field grown, and I dig the bulbs on demand. This allows me to select flowering size bulbs with roots, and it allows you to receive them in as fresh a condition as possible. That’s not all, though! In addition to supplying a superior product compared to any other vendor, my prices are significantly lower than any of the vendors who offer bulbs with roots in pots (remember, with Lycoris, roots are important). My prices are even comparable and can be better than those more commonly available as dormant imports.

So, when purchasing Lycoris from the Bulbmeister, you get:

• Flowering sized
• With roots
• Fresh as a daisy
• Comparably GREAT prices!

Okay, folks! I’m going to say it. But that’s not all! Here’s the most important conclusion for considering this investment.

Lycoris bulbs are perennial and slowly divide (increase). This means you will be buying a flower bulb that gives and keeps on giving! As a matter-of-fact, it is recommended you dig every 7-10 YEARS to divide and spread out the established mass of bulbs. That’s not because you subscribed to an annual Lycoris delivery service! No way! No how! That’s because you loved and respected the unique qualities of Lycoris, so it rewarded you in return, year after year after year for FREE.

Buy from the Bulbmeister! I try my hardest, relying on nobody else but myself, to provide you a quality addition to your landscape.

As of the time of this writing, my already competitive prices are slashed on most Lycoris (surprise, resurrection, hurricane, magic, spider lily)! These special prices will remain in effect through July 4, 2019. I’ve also included Canna and Zephyranthes in this sale. Please do consider the Bulbmeister, and thank you for your time.

I do have to end with a bit of bad news for some. Due to the fact my bulbs are field-grown and do have roots, I am unable to serve the state of California.