Are "surprise" lilies still a surprise even when you've had them for years, blooming in August just like they bloomed last August? (Can a surprise be annual and at the same time every year?)

But this Surprise Lily is, truly, a surprise: I had thought that its tiny tuft of leaves this past Spring, no more enthusiastic than it was last Spring, meant that the lily wasn't happy and was probably transitioning over to that big Compost Heap in the Sky.

But no. All of sudden—by surprise, indeed—here was a bloom spike!

Eager, proud, ready to perform.

It was my yellow Surprise Lily, Lycoris chinensis.

The vendor said (now that I went back to read up on yellow Surprise Lilies) not to expect any action for a year or even several years.

He was sure right about that. But this Summer was The Year of Action.
Spidery deep-yellow flowers, with camel's-length eyelashes, I mean stamens. Wow!

And, of course, this being a "surprise" lily, the bloom is completely unexpected, two months after the leaves themselves had long disappeared. (The bulb-like foliage that appears to be at the base of the bloom spike in the top picture is that of a crinum lily several feet away.)

And so if this one of my three yellow Surprises has bloomed, perhaps the other two will kick in in another year or three too? Each of them would be a surprise as well.

Give this Surprise good Winter drainage, almost any normal soil, and plenty of sun anywhere from Zone 5 to 9, and it should (eventually) surprise you too.