Botanic Beet: The Saint Joseph Lily
by Russell Studebaker
As gardeners we have all grown and flowered the indoor Amaryllis lilies so familiar around the Christmas holidays. There is a completely cold hardy amaryllis for the garden, and it's called the Saint Joseph Lily, Hippeastrum xjohnsonii. Until more recent times, the only way to acquire it was to get on a waiting list for a division or inherit one from a family member who grew them, but that has changed.
Elizabeth Lawrence, the late southern landscape architect and garden writer, acquired hers through southern market bulletins. These printed circulars from many southern states advertised the sale farm products and home-grown plants from rural home sources. Southern garden books spurred my insatiable desire and fueled my search to find and grow this treasured heirloom.
My first attempt years ago ended in frustration when I ordered three Saint Joseph lily bulbs from a nursery in Louisiana. And I discovered that when they flowered that they were imposters, and only the Dutch hybrid amaryllis of the holiday season. Since that time, I have learned of nurseries that have offered the true Saint Joseph Lily by mail order.
What makes this amaryllis so special and coveted is its hardiness - it's beauty and winter hardiness from USDA Zones 6 -10. These plants produce five-inch funnel shaped flowers brilliant red, with white striped petals on 20-inch stems, and as many as four stems produced from mature plants each bearing four to six fragrant flowers. Even the 25-inch-long slightly arched foliage is handsome. The leaves are dark, green and may be tinted with bronze in full sun.
The name Saint Joseph Lily was given to the plant because in the Gulf Coast region where it is more common, it usually flowers by March 19, on the feast of Saint Joseph. In our Tulsa zone, it flowers in late April to mid-May around Mother’s Day, depending on its site exposure.
The plant's Latin name, Hippeastrum xjohnsonii, honors, Arthur Johnson, an English watchmaker who is credited with creating this first hybrid in 1799. Johnson crossed H. reginae, the queen amaryllis of Peru, with satiny red petals with a Brazilian species, H. vittaturm. The latter parent contributed its cold hardiness, its multiflowered umbels of trumpet-shaped, white striped petals and its tolerance of clay soils.
In his book, Garden Bulbs for the South, Scott Ogden writes, "After nearly two hundred years, H. xjohnsonii remains a prolific and hardy garden amaryllis." These durable plants are often found in old cemeteries and abandoned home sites in the South but continue to perform quite nicely without any assistance from gardeners. Plant Saint Joseph lilies in full sun or part shade in spring or fall, and space them about 12 inches apart; and 4 inches deep. The clumps will gradually increase. As it sets little or no seed, propagation is by division. And division in the dormant season is only necessary after five or more years.
Mail Order Sources: The Southern Bulb Company, Golden, Texas, Ph: 888-285-2486; web: www.southernbulbs.com; Old House Gardens, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ph; 734-995-1486; web: www.oldhousegardens.com.
Russell Studebaker served as the first professional Senior Horticulturist for the Tulsa Park and Recreation Department from 1964-1996 with Woodward Park as the headquarters for those operations. During his tenure in 1979, Woodward Park received the "Best Maintained Park in the United States" award from the Professional Grounds Management Societies award program. The Tulsa Municipal Rose Garden was expanded with to a total of 9,000 plants, and it was awarded a Bronze Plaque in 1979 from the All-American Rose Society for "Best Maintained Municipal Rose Garden in Texas and Oklahoma." With the help of Tulsa plant societies, Tulsa Garden Club, and Tulsa citizens, the funding for the planting of 15,000 Azaleas was also accomplished for the Park.