Rhode Island

Published Friday, July 27, 2007 by Chris | E-mail this post

Tiger lilies are something that we can grow all over the state of Texas. People in Missouri always talk about them growing in the ditches, and here they are blooming in Rhode Island! It’s like seeing a friend that makes you feel at home. Mr. Brown Thumb recently wrote about them and I think you all might enjoy his posting.

We’re filming a rain lily segment for a PBS show called Cultivating Life hosted by Sean Conway. Steve Orr is the one who organized me coming up. I first met Steve in New York almost a year and a half ago when he was with House and Garden. Here’s a quick shot of Steve working hard at his computer while we wait for the next segment to be shot.

It really wasn't fair; I asked if he wanted to be on the blog and with a positive response I quickly pulled the camera out to snap the shot. The problem with rain lilies is that they are impossible to predict when it comes to their blooms, and almost harder to ship. I waited a day before the segment to UPS one day ship them here in order to ensure that they would be in bloom for the show. We were all holding our breath, waiting for the shipment. The UPS truck with the boxes arrived as we did to the filming location, and with the internal drum rolls going, we opened the boxes. The ones that were blooming had lost their blooms, the ones coming into bloom had their blooms chopped off by neighboring pots, and the ones just shooting up buds had been de-potted and were laying amongst the Styrofoam peanuts. One of the Philippine lilies had its stalk chopped off and the other looked dismal. It was panic time except people around here don’t panic…they innovate.

Luckily, the host had a personal pot of Zephyranthes labufarosea in bloom, perfect as I had brought dry bulbs of this specimen with me. Some of the other rain lilies continued to shoot up and we have them all potted now. If they don’t bloom today, they will tomorrow or the next week, and they can film them then. A couple of the other rain lilies we are talking about are Zephyranthes ‘Prairie Sunset’ and Zephyranthes rosea. We are all ready to go now.

One of the rain lilies that we will talk about is Zephyrnathes 'Prairie Sunset' that has nice apricot colors and multiplies rapidly by offsets and seed. The colors allow it to be matched with many different landscape plants. The colors are a little washed out in this photo.

Another is Zephyranthes grandiflora, a large flowered lilac, purple flower that blooms quite regularly throughout the summer.

Just got word that Fischer has torn the base of my new armoire, torn up the tiles at the entrance of the office, and everything else that wasn’t tied down. I wish he would just tear up my boots, which should be turned into a chew toy anyways. Here’s picture from day two of the guineas. They are violent in their handling of crickets and grasshoppers.

Now done with the segment. Had some famous Gray’s homemade ice cream before I left. They insisted that I try the coffee flavor. Later I learned that Rhode Island has a fascination with coffee flavored everything! I was glad they insisted because it hit a sweet tooth I didn't know I had.

Sean Conway, the host, showed me around the gardens and various structures. Everything was done to perfection, and his one time garden center is now a well manicured display garden with an outdoor kitchen, great view of the water, studio set, and family living area all rolled into one. One of my personal favorite items Sean developed for Target was the now iconic garden gnome.