I make several trips a week through Marcus Bottom to Cherry Street, and for the past week or so I have noticed all of the red spider lilies.

It’s funny how in some yards there are bunches while in others, there may be one lone flower.

Spider lilies have never been a favorite of mine, and I am not quite sure why. It could be because I tend to be a rather orderly person and spider lilies bloom in such a haphazard way, popping up in the middle of the yard or on the side of the road.

In fact, they seem to be more like weeds, finding a home just about any place.

However, while they are not my preferred flower, they are my youngest daughter’s favorite.

In fact, for years, she kept the first one given to her thumbtacked to the bulletin board in her room. It would still be there if it had not literally crumbled to pieces.

I can still recall the day she was given the red spindly flower.

A young man who sometimes caught a ride to the junior high with us had picked one out of his yard and brought it to the car to give her.

She was excited to receive the flower and I thought it was a sweet gesture.

Through the years, additional spider lilies made their way to my daughter’s room, only to find out, she was allergic to these bulbous perennials.

It was a sad discovery, but it did not deter her fondness for the flower.

So, while she cannot get up close and personal with her favorite, last year, hubby decided she could at least admire them from afar and dug up some on the side of the road and transplanted them in our yard.

As fall began to creep in, and the red flowers began popping up everywhere, hubby was a little discouraged. After all his efforts, there seemed to be no spider lilies blooming in our yard.

But alas, one popped up.

Hubby was excited to see his efforts weren’t totally for naught.

Unfortunately, my daughter is at college and by the time she comes back home for a visit, I’m afraid this lone flower will not be around.

Spider lilies are in the amaryllis family and according to Japanese legend have been associated with death. This sounds gruesome, but it was thought the scent of these flowers brings back all the beautiful memories of the dead for one last time before disappearing when the loved one “crosses the Forgotten River.”

There are other meanings and symbols associated with the red spider lilies, however, for me, they symbolize fall and cooler weather.

And after a long sultry summer I thought would never end, maybe I should reconsider my opinion of the flower.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.