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Photo Credit: Felder Rushing

St. Joseph lily is one of the most hardy of the amaryllis selections.

“Howdy, Bub, yourself,” he’ll say.
“Um, no,” you’ll reply. “I said, ‘hardy bulbs.’”
“Never heard of him.”

Truth is, to most folks around here, a bulb is either (A) that round thing Thomas Edison invented or (B) a daffodil. Oh, sure, some of us have grown crocus alongside our sages and onions in our gardens, but those other bulb-type plants, like tulips and dahlias, we mostly just see in garden magazines.

So it may come as a surprise to learn that there are quite a few bulbs – yes, hardy bulbs – that we Southwesterners can plant right now (in fall) for a splash of color. And get this: They’ll naturalize in your garden so you can enjoy their blooms for years to come.

Let’s start with amaryllis. No, not that wide-petalled Dutch amaryllis sold for Christmas bloom, but the one known as St. Joseph lily (or botanically, Hippeastrum x johnsonii).

In cultivation for nearly 200 years, St. Joseph lily is one cold-hardy amaryllis, thriving wherever the ground doesn’t freeze deeply – which is perfect for many of our Southwestern soils. And it’s a terrific bulb for our region because it perennializes rapidly. It’s large, crimson-colored, trumpetlike flowers rise in clusters of four to six atop 2-foot stems. In most of the Southwest, you can expect the spicy-scented blossoms to appear in early April.

St. Joseph lily should be planted in fall or early spring, on 6- to 9-inch intervals about 2 inches deep. The bulbs need full sun to light shade, and like many other plants, they do best in slightly acidic to neutral soils – but St. Joseph lily will thrive in heavy clays, too. If you live in a particularly cold climate in the Southwest, good drainage in winter is key to the plant’s hardiness.