Blood Lillies ~ Not for Zombies

Have you ever heard of Blood Lillies?  I saw some once and had to have some for my garden but they were terribly expensive.  I waited long enough and Lowe's put the rhizomes on clearance at a price I could afford.  I bought the 3 they had.

Here's one of two that are blooming right now amid the shamrocks.  They are a spiny looking flower ball, red with yellow tips.  Looks like a sea urchin doesn't it?

Scadoxus is a genus of 9 species native to tropical Africa in the family of Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae.  I don't really know Latin, that's just what Wikipedia has listed.

This is what it looks like before it bursts open, although my leaves are much larger than this one.  I am in a tropical zone 9 so it happily naturalizes here and I don't have to grow it in a pot or dig it up each year.

Here's a close up.  The heads are about 6 or 7 inches in diameter.  It is also called a football lily or a powder puff lily.  It likes sun to part shade, though mine is in light shade continually.

I found this photo and more info on the plant here.  That site says it has berries after blooming but I have never seen any on mine.  Guess I'll be looking for them this time around.

This plant is highly toxic and has been used to poison darts in Africa so be careful if you have children or animals that like to taste things.  The good part is that bugs don't like them!