Haemanthus multiflorus / Scadoxus multiflorus. RHS Award of Garden Merit. Football or Blood Lily. Produces numerous blood red flowers in shape and nearly the size of a football during spring. Flowers first leaves appear later. Height 25-30cm

Blood lily is a beautiful flowering bulb from tropical Africa. The spectacular flowerhead is a huge spherical umbel consisting of up to 100 flowers, held clear of the foliage at the end of a solitary stem. Each plant will produce only one flowerhead in a season.
Blood lily is a bulbous plant with leaves on short, speckled stalks. The flower stalk bears a rounded inflorescence, usually 8-12 cm across. The plant may live for many years and will flower annually indoors. During the growing season the plant needs bright light, if possible direct sunshine for two hours daily. During winter dormancy, light is unimportant but temperature should not drop below 13 degrees centigrade.

Commonly called the Football Lily, the Pin Cushion Lilly and the Blood Lily or the Blood Flower (haima = blood and anthos = flower), it belongs to the family Amaryllidae. The leaves are long and sword-shaped, and two or more of them appear after the flowers open or when the short lived flowers die down. The plant is propagated by separating offsets from its large onion-like bulbs. New plants thus raised take two to three years to flower.

The arrival of the flowers every year will be a welcome surprise as they appear when the plants have completely "disappeared". The plant should be sparingly watered as over watering or watering when in its resting stage will rot the bulbs.