August Showers Yield Golden Flowers!

A basket of bounteous beauty to come!

Last Tuesday after an appointment with my recent medical providers, as I turned off the Beltway onto Memorial Drive in heavy rain, I passed a vacant lot with splashes of golden sunshine beaming from various spots. Those were gardener's gold: beautiful yellow rain lilies popping up to thank Mother Nature for the gift of rain. As I passed, I noted there was a For Sale By Owner sign with a phone number.

So, yes, I did what any gardener would do: I circled back around and pulled over to write down that number. And then I called and spoke to the owner to ask if I might dig some of those golden delights. He said I was the second caller in as many days :-) I told him there were plenty of bulbs for both of us so he consented graciously.

I confess, even though I'm working hard to keep to my restricted activity level, I went back the next day and dug up a few myself. Give me points for not trying to dig them in the rain! I was careful in my movements and I didn't dig nearly as many as I'd have liked. The HG is still chiding for not taking pictures to share with y'all. Hush, woman.

Fortunately, I'd had the foresight to check in with my pal Otahal and ask if by any chance, he and his crew might be in the Houston area this week. They were indeed working on a job near downtown and Mr. Otahal kindly consented to stop by the vacant lot and have his crew do some more digging for me. They stopped by yesterday evening with a bounty of rain lily bulbs which he thinks are Zephyranthes sulphurea.

I have big plans for these little bulbs in the front gardens. I am so appreciative of Otahal and his hard-working crew for doing the hard part of the work. And for then going above & beyond by taking down the rest of the vitex trunk with their chain saw, which I'd spotted in the back of the truck. The HG considers me a shameless opportunist but Otahal and I go back a long, LONG ways and I'm careful to make fairly minor requests when he and the crew are on the road home after a hard week's work. I frequently repay him in plants: yesterday he took home a contractor's grade 39 gallon trash sack of Louisiana iris. He was happy to get them and I was happy to see them go!