The sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii) is a native plant found in many of the drier regions of the American West. A perennial that grows from a bulb and produces a single flower stem, the sego lily is adapted to areas of open sagebrush in foothills and valleys. It can be grown in a home garden if its specific cultural requirements are met. The official state flower of Utah, the wild sego lily is protected and may not be picked or the bulb harvested in that state. It is suitable for U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 8.
The sego lily plant grows from a single bulb, developing gray-green, narrow leaves that emerge from and surround the center of the bulb. It produces one upright stem with one to four large white flowers at its end. The lovely flower has three petals, is goblet-shaped and up to 3 inches in diameter. Its petals are satiny white with yellow and red markings at their origins, giving the center of the flower a colorful note. The plant dries up shortly after its spring bloom season, reappearing the next year to begin a new growth cycle.
How to Plant
Although sego lilies grow wild, they can be challenging to grow in a home garden. Because sego lily seeds germinate very slowly, choose either a container-grown sego lily plant or a dormant bulb for your garden. In early spring, dig a hole for your plant deep enough for it to be at the same depth as it was in its pot. You might also plant a sego lily bulb in summer or fall, after the plant has dried up. Place the bulb in a hole about 4 inches deep so that it is covered by no more than an inch of soil. Examine your bulb carefully, finding the desiccated, shriveled roots left from the previous season. Plant the bulb with this end down so that it will grow properly.
A sego lily needs arid soil with sparse amounts of nutrients, similar to that found in its native habitat. Choose a very sunny spot for your plant where the soil contains no clay and only a little organic material. Identifying the right location at planting is critical, since sego lilies do not recover well after transplanting. Your sego lily requires almost no water, tolerating very little rain and requiring no supplemental watering. To promote quick drainage after rainfall, consider adding sand to the soil around your plant. Alternatively, plant your sego lily in a spot that is protected from rain, such as under a roof eave or other structure that will keep rain off its location.
A sego lily may not bloom every year, since it often takes several years for the bulb to store enough nutrients to support a flower. For this reason, consider planting several bulbs in a grouping so that at least a few flowers will appear each season. The bulbs are eaten by several animals, including gophers and rodents. If these are prevalent in your area, you can protect your bulbs by constructing an underground enclosure for them from chicken wire or other fencing that has small openings.