How to Grow Oxblood Lily (Schoolhouse Lily) Flowers

By Matt Gibson and Erin Marissa Russell

If you are looking for a tropical flush to lend a burst of exotic color and vogue to your flower garden , and you live in a warm clime area , you might need to adjudicate grow oxblood lily flowers . Oxblood lilies are also experience as schoolhouse lilies , because of their blooming time , which coincides with school starting back up in the fall , or hurricane lilies , as their efflorescence also line up with storm season in the Southern United States .

Though less common in the north , oxblood lilies are in reality outstandingly cold hardy plant life that can withstand gelid temperatures as down in the mouth as 10 degrees Fahrenheit . Oxbloods are more often than not hardy to zones eight through eleven , but northerly gardeners down as low as zone seven can also grow oxblood lilies in a sheltered location , or in extremely stale mood , oxblood lilies can be grown indoors as houseplant .

oxblood lily flowers blooming

Native to Argentina and Uruguay , the oxblood blossom is tame for its optic - catching blooms . The gorgeous blossom are deep profligate cerise and have the ability to stand up out in a crowd , even amongst an array of other shining colors . Oxblood lily , or Rhodophiala , bloom throughout autumn and go abeyant in the summertime . The bloom are forge like the amaryllis peak , with which they share the same plant family . Each individual efflorescence is only undetermined for two to three days , but each cluster will continue to bring about new blooms for around one month .

Though fear for Rhodophiala is relatively specific , the flower is very hardy and adapt well to various soil conditions . First introduced in Texas around the other 1800 ’s by Peter Henry Oberwetter , a German immigrant and botanist that settle down in the Texas Hill Country just before the Civil War . Today , the oxblood lily is a rarity in nursery and garden centers , and is primarily passed around between gardener and friends to append a brilliant red volume to autumn landscapes .

Oxblood lilies are mostly confined to the hayfield of East Texas , and the South Texas Hill Country , near where Mr. Oberwetter grow his glasshouse bed , but there have been sighting of oxbloods as far west as California , and as far eastern United States as Florida . No matter where they are grown , the exotic reddish blooms are a magnet for hummingbird and other pollinators .

Varieties of Oxblood Lilies

Though there are just under 30 mintage of Rhodophiala rise in Uruguay and Argentina , as well as Chile , and southerly Brazil . Some species grow from declension to spring and go dormant in the Summer , while others spring up from outflow to autumn and require a full winter dormancy . Flowers come out just after dormancy period in either the pin or spring .

Only the R. bifida cultivar has been naturalized in North America , as it is the hardiest , most rut - tolerant , and easiest to uprise . The bifida , or oxblood species also does not require a dry quiescence and needs a little bit of rainfall all yr long . In zone seven and up , the R. bifida cultivar thrives in any soil type . There are three cultivar under the R. bifida umbrella one is a pinkish variety prognosticate R. bifida var . Spathacea . There is also an orange - crimson variety called , R.bifida var . Grandiflora . However , the red variety , R. bifida var.vermillionis the most vigorous , and the most common . Rhodophiala is a phallus of theamaryllis plant family .

Growing Conditions for Oxblood Lilies

Oxblood lily grow well in full sun and partial shade locations . Pick a spot that gets an average of six to eight minute of sunlight per day . Flowerheads will outlast longer with a little bit of afternoon shade during the blistering clip of day . Oxblood lily are incredibly hardy plant life that are adaptable to a wide range of mountains of stain medium . They even grow well in intemperate Henry Clay soils , as long as they are well - draining . Boggy soil types will quickly shoot down oxbloods . They will conform to any pH range from heavily alkaline to heavily acidic dirt types . Oxblood lily are heating tolerant and relatively drought tolerant except for during the spring , in which they require consistent rain in fiat to constitute both leaves and blossom .

How to Plant Oxblood Lilies

institute your oxblood lilies in the saltation after foliage have died back . or else , bulbs can be planted in the later summertime to former fall . Sow bulbs three to four column inch deep placing them in the ground so that the cervix face upwards . Space bulbs at least eight in asunder from each other and other neighboring flora . Bulbs are planted deeply in the soil and may even travel deeper on their own to help oneself protect themselves during dormancy . Though the medulla oblongata are leafless during the summertime month , they are not genuinely dormant , as the root scheme stays active all year long .

Care for Oxblood Lilies

How to Propagate Oxblood Lilies

There are three way to spread oxblood lily : by division or from germ , direct sowing either as soon as you’re able to work the garden in leap or after the last frost of the fall . Be advised that sowing seed is not particularly reliable , so it ’s not recommended . Most gardener have much nifty succeeder when they originate these lily from bulbs .

To part oxblood lily , you could either divide the rootstock , the Tuber , the corbs , or bulbs ( include any offsets ) . class can be perform at any time of yr , but if you ’d care to forefend interfere with the bloom round of your lily , time your division so you ’ll be transfer them in other summer or late in the springtime , just as foliage start to die back .

It is not need to divide lilies that are still blooming well , as you could leave them in stead without sectionalisation for several age , and they will persist in to bloom happily in bunch . If you notice your lily are failing to flower , however , division may be just what they need .

Garden Pests and Diseases of Oxblood Lilies

Gardeners who produce oxblood lily should be aware of the follow pests and disease so they can supervise their plants for symptom . The sooner you find an infection or infestation is occuring , the easier the issue will be to treat since it will not have had time to spread very much . Scale and spider pinch are more likely to inhabit lily that are kept indoors , as the desiccant conditions are a honorable habitat for these insect . Outdoors , they do not ordinarily have job with pests or disease at all .

Root Rot : you could prevent root waste from taking hold in your lilies by being thrifty not to overwater them . If an issue persists , check to make certain the soil has sufficient drain and that the spot where they are planted take sufficient air circulation . The symptoms of beginning rot get down underground , so the disease sometimes choke unnoticed for a while . The roots will commute grain and color , develop soggy area that are disconsolate instead of the pale shade of good for you roots . If root word rot is allow to progress , plant will eventually start showing signs of impairment above priming , such as droop or scrawny development .

you may pull up a plant that you suspect has root rot and examine the root word arrangement . If you see symptoms of tooth root buncombe , use clean , sterilized shears to prune away the discolored part of the root system that are affect by the disease . If the root are still waterlogged , you’re able to lie the plant out in the sun or on paper to allow the roots to dry out before you put the plant back into the dry land . For more information , translate ourarticle How to push Stem and Root Rot .

Scale : Scale insects only grow to be half an column inch long , and they come in shades of green , brown , gray , and black . These insect have armored shells , so an infested plant may appear to simply have bumps along the shank or branches . Sometimes , exfoliation will emit a readable , sticky substance that remains on the aerofoil of industrial plant called honeydew . This inwardness attracts emmet , and notice it on a plant can help to diagnose the presence of scale .

If there are only a few insects on your plants , you may remove them by scrap them off with a twig , bush brushing , or gardening tool . ( verify to use a fresh , sterile tool or a twig that does not have mansion of plague or disease . ) You may pick out to make the task shorter by simply clip off the region of the flora that are affect instead of scraping off the scale insects when plague is not too severe .

When infestations are light , you may also make a homemade neem oil colour atomiser to diminish the amount the scale insects feed on plants and contain new dirt ball from moving in . Mix a liter of warm water with four or five drops of dish goop and a teaspoonful of neem oil color , then implement to plant life about twice per week .

you may also use predatory insect such as ladybug , lace wings , or parasitical wasps , which will prey on the shell insects ( or , in the case of the wasps , cause the scale insects ’ death by laying eggs inside their bodies ) . life-threatening plague case can be handle with horticultural oil . For more information , read ourarticle How to Control Scale Insects .

Spider Mites : Spider hint are technically spider , not mites , and are as lilliputian as the period at the terminal of a judgment of conviction . They are extremely petite and be given to spread and manifold very quickly , not to mention being able-bodied to pour down a works . Plants that spider mites are feeding on will exhibit floater or stripes on their leaves in tincture of icteric , tan , or blank . If left ungoverned , a spider mite infestation can cause leafage to alter coloring material entirely , shrink , or leave out from the plant . The tiny livid and red spots that move are the spider mites themselves . You ’ll also see cottony webbing appear on the underside of plant life foliage when an plague is in progress .

Quarantine plants with signs of spider mite damage as shortly as you notice it , because they apply their webbing to move in the wind from plant to plant , so they can go recollective distances in quite a myopic time . take away this webbing if you see it , not only to deter the spread head of spider mites but also so that the treatments explain below can reach the worm .

If you catch the intrusion early enough , you’re able to treat spider speck with targeted jets of piss from the garden hosepipe . Do be aware that you will need to repeat the treatment several time in guild for it to be in effect , and it only really works on tripping plague . More serious cases can be treat by releasing parasitic touch or ladybugs , which you may buy online or at many baby’s room and garden heart and soul . you could also use horticultural fossil oil or the homemade neem rock oil spraying commend in the scale insect section to defend wanderer tinge . To make it , simply combine a liter of warm weewee with four or five drop of dish grievous bodily harm and a teaspoonful of neem oil colour . For more information , read ourarticle How to Fight Spider Mites .

It can be hard for some gardeners to tally oxblood lilies with other flowers in the garden because the burgundy background combined with the pinkish and white contrasting stripe makes both pink and red a lilliputian too much of the same matter . While pairing these blossoms with a scope of white provides high contrast , it may be a mo too striking for some taste . Some gardener recommend partnering oxblood lilies with dark light-green or paler chartreuse shades in the garden , and yellow flowers will match well with the interior anther of the lilies . Keep in creative thinker when you ’re project a flower garden that oxblood lily do n’t bloom until September , when many of the blossoms surrounding it will already be spent for the season .

perniciousness Warning!Oxblood lilies can be toxic to little pets , as well as humans if ingested . All constituent of the plant are toxic , and can cause digestive unrest . Smaller pets , such as belittled cat and dogs , may experience more severe stomach nisus than large pets or mankind , but ingestion is not lifetime - threatening . Still , take care to develop oxblood lilies in positioning that are out of reach of small children , and in place where your pets are not likely to travel .