Fall at its Finest

early morning over ms river bridge at helena

Last weekend proved quite the weekend of firsts, of adventures, and a show of the Delta fall landscape at its finest. The weekend began with surviving my first Art Alfresco, Mainstreet Greenwood's annual fall art walk throughout downtown. Following Art Alfredo, as it was deemed due to the talent of the iPhone auto-correct, we loaded up the Q and headed to Helena, Arkansas for my first King Biscuit Blues Festival. And just like any true freshman, I was initiated with freezing temperatures, pouring rain, hours spent camped out at the local Mexican cantina, more ounces of bourbon than I care to repeat, and the absolute time of my life seeing Bonnie Rait live. It rained just too much to capture much of the actual weekend, but when the skies broke Sunday morning, it was if the Delta had exploded into fall color. What follows are images captured on the trip home to Greenwood; iconic images of the landscape that surrounds us during the fall.

 daylight over a towboat along the mighty missisippi

 

rust fall color of the bald cypress

  collage of fall color of a roadside cypress break along hwy. 49

even duckweed is beautiful in the fall...

 golden rod, cattails, &  johnson grass

 

fall colors all around

 nothing cleaner or crisper than a cotton boll

fluffy, white clouds.. of cotton

blue sky, sunny day

 classic roadside vignette

 

 hard to tell where the sky stops and the field begins

 dead end dirt road

 

 old cotton wagons in their retirement

 turn rows, ditch rows, cotton rows, and tree lines

 grain bins at rest for the season

 

one last stalk of green

nothing like it..anywhere on earth...

Fireworks of Fall

 a single firework of fall

In the summertime, we ring in the season with the bursts of bright fireworks throughout the night sky. With the transition from the summer season to fall, the season is ushered in with fireworks seen on a lower plane of vision. Instead of looking to the sky this time of year, we look to our neighborhood flower beds, countrysides, and ditch banks along dirt roads to witness little bursts of bright red firework- like flowers. Set amidst the dark green hues of the late summer/early fall landscape, the Spider Lily offers little explosions of vivid red color to welcome the fall season, as summer slowly fades into the background. 

And just like the summer fireworks that ascend into the heavens at their own free will, the Spider Lily seems to appear wherever its free will guides it in our landscape. There seems to be no rhyme, reason or logic to the growth habit of these bulbs. They are seen in clumps, as individuals, in shade, and in sun. Some are in beds, some are around trees, and some just pop up along a random roadside ditch bank.   

the lily spotting beagle

Whatever their reason for location, they have been absolutely stunning in the Delta this year. I discovered a few popping up in my own backyard Saturday. Being too sore from my Saturday of wrestling Asiatic Jasmine in my flower beds to do much of anything on Sunday, I took the hound dog on a Sunday drive...instead of a walk (which we were both totally okay with). It was on this afternoon drive where we discovered an absolute abundance of these radiant lilies just outside the Greenwood city limits. It's as if the Delta countryside was ablaze with a fall firework show.

delta pecan grove  lily colony

The Spider Lily or Lycoris radiata, an ever so fitting name, is actually native to China or Japan. According to Chris Weissinger, The Bulb Hunter, the red Spider Lily arrived to the US via Captain William Roberts who sailed to Japan aboard some of the US Navy's first steam powered ships in the later 1800's. On his website, www.southernbulbs.com, Chris notes that the Spider Lily is resilient to the stress of drought and upon the first fall rain is when they explode into the shades of red we are experiencing right now. As it turns out the hot, dry summer we have endured in the Delta has lead to this brilliant crop of Spider Lilies seen throughout our landscape. Nature is rewarding us for our own resilience to the Delta summer with these fall beauties. 

 lilies of the roadside 

Culture: 
The spider lily is bulb that should be planted in areas with full sun and excellent drainage. The bulb performs best when kept dry during the summer months. When the flower stalks emerge, shift to watering regularly. Plant the bulbs in late summer, setting them about 1' apart. As with other bulbs, keep the neck at or just above the soil surface. Transplant and divide spider lily bulbs after blooming. Protect with mulch in the winter. 

While the red Spider Lily is the one with which we are most familiar, there are other species. There is even a white varity of the Spider Lily, Lycoris radiata 'Alba'. Other Lycoris species include: 
.

Lycoris aurea, Golden Spider Lily

Lycoris chinensis

Lycoris x haywardii

Lycrois incarnata

Lycoris longituba

Lycoris sanguinea

Lycoris sprengeri 

Lycorsi squamigera, Magic Lily, Surprise Lily, Naked Lady

(The Southern Living Garden Book, page 400).

  backyard lilies of monroe avenue

more lilies of the roadside and ditch banks

So instead of gazing upward into the night sky, take a glance at your feet in the afternoon sun to experience the shear brilliance of these fireworks of fall.

just an entire yard of spider lilies (guard dog of house prevented a better photo...)