The Beauty Next Door by Jim Hirsch, Member of Red Bluff Garden Club Sometimes it’s wonderful what you may see if you keep your eyes open. I could also say that sometimes it’s all about the timing. This is certainly true about flowering plants. You might look at a red hot poker dozens of times and see nothing but a grass-like plant. Ah, but when it blooms it’s a whole new world. Thus it was with today’s floral subject. A duty as mundane as taking out the garbage put me in the right place at the right time. I put out the garbage bin next to my driveway, which is right by our property line with our neighbors. I happened to glance into their yard and saw some exquisite flowers. I didn’t remember seeing them before, nor did I recognize the species. They looked a lot like amaryllis, with their trumpet-shaped flowers, but they had leaves, for goodness sake. It’s become second nature to me that when I see a plant that I don’t know, I grab my phone and head for my plant identifier app. There are some good ones around. I happen to use “Picture This,” which has generally worked well for me. When I used it on my neighbor’s flower, I found that it was a striped Barbados lily, scientific name “Hippeastrum striatum.” My weak knowledge of Latin was good enough to remind me that striatum means “striped,” so that worked. I was happy to see that the striped Barbados lily (SBL from here on) is in the same family as the amaryllis, which is “Amaryllidaceae,” so you can say there’s a family resemblance. SBL is native to Brazil and was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1783, according to Wikipedia. It has spread to numerous locations since then. One reason it can do that is that the plant produces “bulbils,” which Wikipedia describes as small, young plants produced by the parent plants that are genetically the same (basically, clones). Wikipedia describes SBL as “bright red with a green keel,” but I suspect that refers to the original wild plant. “Garden Drum” describes SBL as having orange flowers with a cream center. If you look it up on the net, you will find many varieties with various colors being offered for sale. The hybridizers have been busy. Our neighbor’s clump of SBL is in nearly full shade, beneath some crape myrtle bushes. They get plenty of light, but they aren’t subject to the full sun. I have seen authors recommending full sun, partial sun, and shade. Picture This gives them a range of 23-109 degrees, so they’re pretty flexible. As to soil, again, I found everything from peaty soil to sandy loam. My soil is sort of sandy to gravelly, so I am of the opinion that SBL is not tremendously fussy. But it sure is pretty. Photo Credit: Jim Hirsch www.CaliforniaGardenClubs.org (fb)

EVOLUTION IN ACTION --From the Newsletter of Fresno Cactus & Succulent Society Anna’s Hummingbirds, the most common California hummingbird, have developed longer beaks in response to the profusion of backyard bird feeders across the state. This has happened in just over 10 generations — “in the twinkling of an eye” in evolutionary terms. Read all about it: https://www.science.org/content/article/bird-feeders-have-caused-dramatic-evolution-California-hummingbirds Photo Source: Canva www.CaliforniaGardenClubs.org (fb)