Floral Notes: The Amaryllis Belladonna

A few weeks ago, I noticed a proliferation of pink flowers popping up in gardens and yards all over town.  On tall, leafless green stems, they stood like grand bouquets that had left the tidy security of their vases to lift themselves up to the sun and rejoice in the last days of summer.

I had never seen these beauties before, and no one I asked was sure of their identity, so naturally I turned to Google.  (As a card-carrying bibliophile and budding botany enthusiast, I am quite frankly almost ashamed to admit that I don’t have a shelf full of floral reference books, but there you have it.) I entered a search for “pink flowers on long stems.” Within seconds, I had my answer: the mystery flowers were Amaryllis Belladonna, or Belladonna Lilies!

Amaryllis Belladonna in a wooded Nebraska yard, photographed on 15 August 2015.

Seeking more information about the flower, I learned that it is not a “true” lily; rather, it’s the only true amaryllis, the only species in its genus, and it goes by many names.  The Amaryllis is related to the very large Liliacea  family but does not have the same toxic properties – and this is very important to those of you who share your homes with cats – as the more common “true” lilies (for example, Easter, Asiatic, Day, Japanese show, etc. – these lily varieties are extremely poisonous and potentially fatal to cats and should never be displayed or grown in a feline household.) The popular indoor Christmas plant that you probably know as an Amaryllis is properly called Hippeastrum. (Are you confused yet?)  Across the pond in ye olde England, the Amaryllis Belladonna is often called the Jersey Lily, thanks to a celebrated painting of the wildly popular English actress Lillie Langtry (1852-1929,) who came from the Isle of Jersey, holding the flower. (Apparently, she was actually holding a pink Guernsey Lily, which is not the same thing at all, but the name stuck!)  Finally, many gardeners refer to these flowers as ‘Naked Ladies’ because the summer blooms perch on leafless, or naked, stems.

Regarding the toxicity of the Amaryllis Belladonna, it’s important to note that the leaves, stems and bulbs contain phenanthridine alkaloids which can cause vomiting, hypotension and respiratory depression in both cats and dogs.  Excess drooling or salivation, as well as abdominal discomfort, can result from the raphide oxalate crystals; these are more concentrated in the most poisonous part of the plant, the bulbs. If your cat or dog consumes a large amount of the plant’s toxins, the animal may experience convulsions, low blood pressure, tremors and cardiac arrhythmia.  If you think your pet has eaten any part of this lovely plant, please call your veterinarian or a pet poisoning hotline immediately! (A great resource is www.petpoisonhelpline.com, but in an emergency situation you should CALL the helpline or your vet – don’t waste time trying to search for the information yourself!)

Photographed at Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha’s Botanical Center, on 9 Aug 2015

One last fun fact that I’ve learned about the Amaryllis Belladonna: when properly cared for, an amaryllis bulb can produce flowers for up to 75 years!  I’m afraid that the poor soil in our current home garden will not support these beauties, even if they are “easy growers,” but I’m very glad that the South African native made its way around the world many years ago so that I’m at least able to enjoy it simply by taking a drive around town, or by paying a visit to our local botanical garden.  I shall look forward to seeing it again next year!

Cat Blessings

Since today is “Throwback Thursday,” I thought I would share a piece that I wrote about a year ago for my previous blog …

My mom baked some cornbread this week. It was delicious, but it was slightly overdone.  Mom heard the oven timer go off, but she couldn’t get out of her chair because Sheldon was all curled up on her lap! Now my dear mother will roll her eyes at me when I do something like this, but she knows very well that lap-time with Sheldon is precious.  We’ve had Shel a little over a year now, and he’s always been a snuggle-bun, but he’s devoted all his snuggles to me … until just a few months ago.  Mom was so excited the first time Shel jumped up in her lap and settled down for a little nap, she could hardly wait to tell me about it when I came home that day, and I was just as excited for her!  Our beloved Oliver T used to sit with Mom almost every day, and I knew she’d been missing that since he’d passed away in March 2013.

We feel so privileged when our cats bestow their affection on us, and contrary to what many people believe, it’s not because cats are less affectionate than dogs. I love dogs too, but I think it just takes a little longer to earn a cat’s affection. A cat who has come to know you and trust you and love you will shower you with just as much adoration as a dog, but without the accompanying shower of drool!  Cats in loving homes are every bit as devoted and loyal to their family members as are their canine counterparts; my own cats have proven that to me on a daily basis, and cats around the world are finally getting the credit and the headlines that they deserve as well.

A case in point: the kitty who so warmly welcomed his soldier daddy home from deployment. (Just click that highlighted text and a video will open up in a new window.) The video was all over the interwebs last week, because we’ve seen about 100 videos of dogs welcoming their soldiers home, and this was one of the first cat welcomes on record. And it’s ADORABLE.  But you know what?  My Oliver T used to leap into my arms when he was a kitten almost every time I came home, and as an adult he would rush to meet me at the door and then have a good scratch on my left shoe. Then I would pick him up for a snuggle and up the stairs we’d go. Yes, we went through a lot of shoes … but I wouldn’t dream of denying Oliver his greeting ritual!  Now old curmudgeon Harry, he’s usually too lazy to meet me at the door, but if Mom and I have gone out together for awhile, Harry is right there when we come home.  As for Sheldon, he takes after Oliver (minus the shoe-digging) and almost always comes flying downstairs when he hears me announce my arrival.  Oftentimes I see him watching for me from the window above our garage.  It warms my heart beyond description!

Dogs are wonderful, and of course there’s nothing like a big sloppy kiss and a wagging tail to let you know you’re loved (although I have to say that personally, I can do without the big sloppy kiss!)  Cats are no less demonstrative, their love is just revealed to us in the fabulously feline way: the blessings of the snuggle, the adoring gaze, and of course, the purr.

Good Morning, Rainbow!

Friday morning, after a night of downpours, wind, and lightning, I awoke to the sounds of a coughing cat, so I got out of bed earlier than I had intended.  There was no hairball, and Sheldon was fine by the time I crossed the room to check on him.  I picked him up and carried him up the stairs with me, but we stopped on the landing to look out the window and see how wet the world looked.  Much to my surprise, there was a great big rainbow rising into the sky just behind the houses across the street from us!  What a wonderful way to begin the day!!!

I ran to get my camera before the rainbow disappeared, and was able to get several photos; in fact, the rainbow lingered for at least 15 minutes, which was amazing, and it actually got brighter as the clouds dissipated.  Later, I got to thinking about the science behind the wonderment: a rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. Although you may think that a rainbow is made up of just seven colors – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet – in actuality, the rainbow is a whole continuum of colors from red to violet and even beyond the colors that the eye can see.  How cool is that?!

According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, no two people ever see the same rainbow, a fact I had never considered!  “Since the rainbow is a special distribution of colors (produced in a particular way) with reference to a definite point – the eye of the observer – and as no single distribution can be the same for two separate points, it follows that two observers do not, and cannot, see the same rainbow.  In fact, each eye sees its own rainbow!!”  I think I’ll remember seeing this beautiful rainbow for a long time.