After months of scraping and painting, I finally finished renovating my birdbath.

I proudly placed it in the birding section of my lawn, right next to my neighbor Mike’s yard.

It just so happens that Mike is a quality control manager at some business somewhere in this world. It wasn’t in place very long until Mr. Inspector came over to see what kind of job I had done.

He right away pointed out to me that it wasn’t setting level. One end of the water was deeper than the other.

I know that’s important to him because I watched as he and his son Mike worked days on leveling his fountain. I didn’t have the heart to tell him mine was not level on purpose. I wanted a shallow end for the little wrens and finches, and a much deeper end for the eagles and pelicans.

He then began to tell me about a wedding at the Hoyt Institute he had attended. I asked if he had seen the naked ladies there.

I could tell by the look on his face he didn’t know what I was talking about, so I explained they were a plant, not some painting on the wall.

The botanical name is Lycoris squamigera, but the plant may win the award for having the most common names. They may be called pink surprise lily, resurrection plant, magic lily and of course, the naked lady.

You need to drive by the Hoyt this week as the naked ladies are in full bloom. The reason the plant is so weird is that the foliage comes up in the spring and then dies. Around the latter part of July and early part of August, the flower pops up out of the ground and is in full bloom in just 5 days. It is naked of any leaves. It only has a stem.

You may view the ladies near the sidewalk on the Leisure Avenue side of the Hoyt.

The fragrant plant is a member of the amaryllis family and originally comes from China or Japan. It should be planted 4 to 6 inches deep in full sun to partial shade. Bulbs should be divided every five years, and it sure makes a nice conversation piece.

If you are interested in growing these plants, they are available from most bulb catalogs and even on eBay. I was looking in the van Bourgondien catalog and they are listed as Lycoris.

Now don’t get the wrong bulbs. Most ladies just don’t like the cold. My wife gets cold when it’s in the lower 80s. Only the Pink Magic Lily and the Red Spider Lily are hardy in our area.

I wouldn’t buy just two bulbs. You need several to make an impression. You can inter-plant them with hostas and ferns or just group them together.

I can’t say my birdbath has become the resort spa I was hoping for. Maybe I should add some really small reclining chairs, tables and a few umbrellas. I could probably get Mike’s wife Judy, to make some of her famous margaritas in very small colored glasses and set around the bird bath for color.