We just moved to Bloomington, Indiana from Chicago about 6 weeks ago and I'm still learning what the former owner has in her garden. Well, I just noticed this little beauty that apparently sprang up out of nowhere. It looks like a daylily, but there is no foliage at all! What on earth could this be? I have other daylilies, all with foliage intact and we do not have deer, so I don't think the foliage was stripped by an animal. Sorry for the blurriness - it's horribly hot and humid here and my lens kept fogging! Any ideas what it is? Thanks, all!

Possibly this... Surprise Lily (Lycoris squamigera)

Very pretty!

Looks like Rain Lily. Did you have rain recently? There should be some thin, long-leaf foliage like very wide blades of grass towards the button of the bulb. The flower will reseed after the bloom dies.

Oops, yes. A lycoris.

Looks just like my surprise lilies. The foliage comes up in the spring and then dies back. Later in the summer, Surprise!

The foliage of lycoris will appear after the blooms die back. That is nice for me as they add some green to my beds in the dead of winter.

Thanks, Shady, Terra, and lauribob! OK, so the surprise lily is foliage first, then bloom and the lycoris is the opposite. I will have to keep an eye on this one!

they smell nice too.
They come up in the spring with foliage that is unremakable, it just is green and then died back and look ratty. Then later in the summer very much 'overnight' it sends up a stalk about 30 inches tall or so and blooms.
Some people call them naked ladies, I call them surprise lilies.

Wow. I've gardened for a VERY long time and I'm just completely unfamiliar with this plant. I guess we never stop learning! Frillylily, I'll have to go out there and smell it when the sun goes down - it's suffocating out there! (I took pictures REALLY fast!)

Oh, I think I read the messages too fast - looks like suprise lily and lycoris are the same. I guess we shall mark this SOLVED! Thanks!

I've never seen Lycoris bulbs for sale with the packs of more common bulbs, and had never heard of it either until I got some. As far as I can tell, one has to mail/internet-order Lycoris or be given them by another generous gardener. That is the only one that is hardy as far north as Z6, if memory serves from when I investigated in the 90's after being given some in OH. There are several other kinds that are hardy from about Z7+. Various shades of pink, some yellow, red, and white.

Good info - thanks, Pupleinopp!