plant bulb ID help please

[amalan11]

Hi

I have a heap of these that I found growing on an old abandoned factory site. They are quite  large and when I first saw them I  mistook them for a really nice lush group of Agapanthus plants as even though it was early july inner Sydney they were very green and healthy.

They were in several clumps about a metre each .Once I managed to dig out one bulb, the sandy soil was dry and rock hard, I found I could  rip the bulbs apart from clump by hand one at a time .

The thing is for all my effort I am not sure what they are?...

not Agapanthus as they do not have big bulbs

not belladonna as the leaves are  blunter at the end and thinner

so im thinking Hippeastrum perhaps although bulbs look more onion shaped on internet and I have never seen such lush foliage in winter on Hippeastrum  

Or could they be hymnicalis spider lily ? They are supposed to be evergreen 

I dont think they are crinum as all my crinum have wider leaves...

Any sugestions of anything else they may be ?..

also no sign of buds yet ,one of my hippeastrum has bud so its bud time in sydney 

I hate the mystery of it all...im not a patient woman 

[amalan11]

Ignore that spoiler i have no idea how that got there...

[beryl_green]

If they are bella donna lilies all the green foliage will die in October and you'll see nothing until January when the lily heads will start to push out of the ground.

[chameleon54]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

or agapanthus

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I kept coming back to agis too but the leaves dont seem to spread from the base in the same pattern as agi,s. There are different colours and sized plants in the agi family, tall blue, dwarf blue & white and selected forms such as black panther etc. All have their own characteristics, but not 100% convinced they are agi,s.

[amalan11]

Definitely not aggies as they have massive round bulbs ,aggies do not have that. One bulb is 23 x27 cm .most about tennis ball size or larger

[lloydslights]

Hippeastrum?  Sorry the piccie is so b-i-g.  

[amalan11]

Hippeastrum is still a possibility, would be nice

[amalan11]

Well  mystery solved .I found big flower buds shot up a week ago and today one bloomed. They are spider lily of some kind, im happy as after all the hard work of digging them up they are very pretty and I have always wanted them. 

Funny enough some rail workers doing a clear out gave me a huge patch of belladonna bulbs about 80 all up ,they were redoing the garden and this patch had been there about 15 years ..a dropped seed or something id say ...and they were just ripping them out so I asked and they said I was welcome to them and left  in a pile for me at ticket office .

I now have tubs of bulbs all over lol 

[imastawka]

Well done.  Very nice reward for all that labour.

Yep.  Spider Lily

[amalan11]

It is nice to know what they are,apparently crinum family ..inc spider lily ....do  not like to be disturbed and can take a couple of seasons to bloom again so I have been lucky.

I  will have an amazing seasonal display in time with all the Spider lilies blooming in summer and then all the Belladona/naked ladies in Autumn. 

Looking at google Spider lilies spread well if they are happy and mine have really nice glossy leaves ,they seem to be thriving in the tubs with good watering and sun. Its interesting as they had got to be big bulbs where they were but it was so dry and shady and im pretty sure they had not been blooming there  so will be interesting to see how fast they multiply .

Im going to have some fun finding room if they get too busy as iv already got 2  120x90 cm garden beds and  6 rubber tubs full of them 

Plus 7 tubs of Belladonna.