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The following essay is from Passalong Plants by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing. Copyright 1993 The University of North Carolina Press. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without the express permission of the Press.


The Blackberry Lily and Sara

Common name: blackberry lily
Botanical name: Belamcanda chinensis
Type: herbaceous perennial
Size: 2-4 feet tall
Hardiness: Zones 6-9
Origin: China, Japan
Light: full sun
Soil: fertile, well-drained
Growth rate: moderate
Mail-order source: Carroll Gardens, MD; Forest Farm, OR; J. L. Hudson, CA; Louisiana Nursery, LA; Plant Delights Nursery, NC; Thompson & Morgan, NJ; Van Bourgondien Bros., NY

Whenever I get to thinking about passalong plants, I naturally think of people like Sara Groves of Oxford, Georgia. Literally an institution in and around Atlanta, Sara has spent most of her seventy-plus years creating beautiful public and private flower gardens. Many of the flowers she uses are Old South hand-me-downs, as entrenched in Southern culture as politeness and black-eyed peas. And one of her favorite botanical heirlooms is a freckle-faced flower called blackberry lily.

"I remember blackberry lily from way back when I was a little child," Sara once told me. "It's the first flower that I can remember seeing." It grew next to her grandmother's house, one of the few homes in the area spared by General Sherman during his infamous march through Georgia in the Civil War.

How did a perennial native to China make its way to rural Georgia? In a way, it thumbed a ride. Centuries ago, merchants and botanists transported the plant to Europe. From there, it was just a quick hop over the pond to North America. "I was told that my ancestors brought it over from England," Sara recalled. "I guess it seeded itself, because in the cotton fields at home, it would be all over the terrace rows."

Though her grandmother's house still stands, Sara doubts that blackberry lily grows there now, because the present owners aren't gardeners.

However, many people must have husbanded the plant, because after languishing in obscurity for decades, it has reentered the garden limelight.

Blackberry lily does its thing in midsummer, when wiry, branched stalks lift blossoms well above the irislike leaves. Elizabeth Lawrence describes the blooms' interesting color combination as "ochre spotted with carmine." As my sense of color isn't as discerning as hers, I say they're orange spotted with purplish-red. (Perhaps if I'd had ochre- and carmine-colored crayons as a kid, I'd know what these colors look like and agree with her.) In any case, the one- to two-inch flowers last just one day each, but a succession of blooms keeps the plant in flower for weeks. Because the individual blooms are rather small, you should plant blackberry lily in clusters of six or so to get a good show.

As notable as the flowers are, they don't give the plant its name. That honor goes to the clusters of shiny black seeds that follow the faded flowers. Each cluster looks just like a luscious, ripe blackberry. Perhaps this mimicry fools birds into eating the seeds and spreading them far and wide (as birds are wont to do, especially if they're sitting above your new car.) As you might gather, blackberry lily is easy to grow from seed. You can also propagate it by division in spring or fall.

Sara tells me that over the years she's shared pieces of blackberry lily with many of her friends. While this selfless action may not qualify her for a Nobel Prize, it does mean that no matter how many generals burn their way through town in the future, Belamcanda chinensis will survive to delight gardeners for many years to come. Thanks, Sara. We appreciate it.



Passalong Plants is available in hardcover ($32.50) or paperback ($19.95) at bookstores or from the University of North Carolina Press. Toll-free credit card orders: Phone 1-800-848-6224. Secure ordering online: BUY NOW


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