Naked Ladies (Amaryllis Belladonna) and a Potted Lemon Tree

Almost five years ago, on September 30, 2009, I wrote one of my first posts on this blog about Naked Ladies:

http://goldcountrygirls.blogspot.com/2009/09/naked-ladies-no-not-that-kind.html 

This little patch of Naked Ladies and succulents surrounded by bearded iris was not planted back then. I actually planted all these lovely blooming beauties from bulbs that I thought were dead and rotten. I thought I would give them a chance and most of them sent up leaves that winter and bloomed within the next two years. The spaces in this little plot where they don't grow are very rocky so I couldn't plant bulbs there. It once was just a rocky weedy area below my peonies so I am very happy they made it.

My naked ladies always start blooming in August, which is when my birthday is, so I think of them as a birthday gift I have given to myself. I have planted hundreds of bulbs here in Kelsey, so they compete with the daffodils now.

I love the flowers and the scent of the flowers, I love the beautiful green leaves in the winter when everything else is brown and bare.

 I love the "surprise" when they pop up out of the dry crackly hard clay soil.

 You go, you naked girls...         And in the meantime, a poor potted lemon tree bursts out with tons of fruit...

We have had this little lemon tree for about 25 years, since before we moved to Kelsey. I have lost track of when and why I got it. It has been through potted plant hell, foot deep snow storms, temperatures in the teens for days, 108 degree temperatures, you name it. This year it has decided to be healthy, and instead of its usual (for the last few years anyway) yellowed leaves and straggly limbs, it has greened up and flowered like crazy, and now has over twenty lemons fattening on its stems.

I find it funny that it is going to grace us with a giant bowl full of juicy bitter fruit right when I have developed a tropical fruit allergy, with my tummy rejecting the lemon and lime most of all. I might be able to tolerate a piece of lemon meringue pie, though. I will give it a try!

 Now if we could get our drought damaged lawn to green up...

Lovely shades of green on the lemon tree, beautiful tones of pink in the naked ladies, I am enjoying the colors of our summer.