Wen Shu was the daughter of the moderately successful artist Wen Congjian (1547-1648) and a descendant of the talented and influential Wen Zhengming (1470-1559). She married the scholar Zhao Jun, who belonged to the family of Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322). Wen Shu was highly regarded both personally for her propreity and artistically as a painter of a wide variety of flowers. Most of her dated works were painted between 1626 and 1633, when the family's financial circumstances required her to sell her works.

While bamboo is generally associated in China with scholars, day lilies carry feminine connotations, for when taken as medicine they are believed to help women forget the pain of childbirth. Similarly, they were used to assist in giving birth to sons. Wen SHu had only one child, a daughter, lending this composition a certain poignancy.