Flowering Now: Fortnight Lily (Dietes) – June 24, 2014

This dietes is among some of the flowers blocking in my garden this week. Not my favorite garden plant, as they are hugely overused and abused here in Southern California landscapes, but they do have very pretty flowers. Called Fortnight Lily as they flower about every 2 weeks during the season, the bloom only last 1 day though before disappearing completely. Dietes self-seeds dramatically, if allowed, so it is best to dead had the plants after they flower.

Fortnight lily - Dietes 

Photo: Douglas E. Welch, A Gardener’s Notebook

Dietes

“Dietes is a genus of rhizomatous plants of the family Iridaceae. Common names include Fortnight lily, African iris, Morea or Moraea iris, Japanese iris and Butterfly iris, each of which may be used differently in different regions for one or more of the four species within the genus.

Most species are native to southern Africa, with one (Dietes robinsoniana) native to Lord Howe Island off the coast of Australia. — Wikipedia.org

 
More information on the Dietes:

Previously in Flowering Now:

Read more on this topic:

  1. Garden Alphabet: Dietes (Fortnight Lily)
  2. Flowering Now: Water Lily (Nymphaeaceae)
  3. Flowering Now: Morning glory (Convolvulaceae)
  4. Flowering Now: Calochortus superbus (Superb mariposa lily) – California Native
  5. In the garden this morning…the fortnight lily. (Dietes)