While heavy rain in Central Texas has produced horrific tragedy in certain areas, it’s also filled our reservoirs and my garden has benefited as well. Before the wet arrived, I’d returned from a trip to New Mexico, thrilled that my unwatered Texas garden looked so lush after time spent in a beautiful, but more arid, landscape. Then the rain came and the lush garden doubled-down on foliage and bloom production. This mid-July, flowers are flourishing and pollinators are beside themselves with the abundance.

Along with the floriforous summer perennials, this lone Hill Country Rain lily, Cooperia pedunculata, popped up recently amongst some Mexican Feathergrass, Nassella tenuissima. I purchased bulbs some years ago, planting them deep in the dirt, as the front garden offered little hope for enough sun to make the plants happy. There were blooms for a time, then there weren’t; it’s been a few years since rain lilies were a part of my garden.

I’m fairly sure this lily is the C. pedunculata, because I remember the bulbs being labeled Zephyranthes drummondii–which is a synonym. These sweet flowers appear after significant rain along urban and rural roadsides and patches of undisturbed land. They bloom, then set their charcoal, papery seeds, which are dropped forthwith or carried by the breezes to other places. Their stems retreat to the soil, new stalks with their single blooms reappearing at some later date, after another rainfall.

In a recent post profiling his stunning photos of rain lilies, Steve of Portraits of Wildflowers asked, in response to my comment about his photos, if I’d ever gathered seeds of this flower. The answer is ‘yes’ and I suspect that this recent lily gift is the result of one of the seeds from years ago. I don’t recall planting a bulb in this spot, though it’s possible that I did, but I do recall scattering seeds in the back garden.

I’ll let the seeds from this flower mature, and when ready, I will–with intention–scatter them, though most likely in my front garden, rather than the shadier back garden.

I might also buy more bulbs. Is it possible to have too many rain lilies gracing a newly rained-on garden?