Re: OT: Alstroemeria

From: "R. S. Lockman" <thelockmans@tntie.com>

Hello, I am glad to see your post and Bill's on this plant. I saw it in
bloom for the first time at the Southern Living Spring Show in Charlotte
NC. I looked every where for it and finally found some at Staceys on 321
near York S C. My daughters got me four of them for mothers day. I have
fallen in love with them. Mine are pink, mauve and deep rose/red shades. I
want yellow , orange and gold shades. I hope I can find them this coming
spring. I know more about them after reading your posts. I am interested in
how they over winter here. I am in zone 7 . A little mulch ought to do it.
We will see. Thanks for sharing.
Donna Lockman 
thelockmans@tntie.com

----------
> From: Sterling Okase <sterling_o@hotmail.com>
> To: iris-talk@onelist.com
> Subject: [iris-talk] OT: Alstroemeria
> Date: Tuesday, August 18, 1998 7:48 AM
> 
> From: "Sterling Okase" <sterling_o@hotmail.com>
> 
> Bill,
> 
> Thanks so much for posting this information on Alstroemerias. Since 
> adding them to my garden last year I have been searching the web for 
> more information about them. and so far have come up with nothing other 
> than cut flower information. This information will come in handy.
> 
> Originally, I got my plant last year from a nursery and they were 
> selling the root clipping from a large basket covered with damp peat 
> moss. I was very excited to find them since I had been looking for quite 
> a while for them. I brought my piece home and put it in a pot and 
> covered it with soil. When I finally made some room in the garden, I 
> planted it and I had no problems with the transplant. Beginner's Luck, I 
> think. Since then, people have told me how difficult it is to 
> transplant. I have since found more varieties but these were already 
> potted so had no trouble putting them in the ground.
> 
> One of my plants is in dire need of more room...*natch* so I will be 
> attempting to move it this fall. Fall would be the time to move 
> it...yes? I am hoping that if I move it quickly, perhaps with soil 
> attached, it will survive.
> 
> Also, I have already learned that their unusual seed pods are rather 
> explosive!!!!! So rather than having Alstroemerias coming up everywhere 
> in the garden (or worse....having my eye shot out by a seed!!! How do I 
> tell the doctor that my plant shot me!!!), I have been collecting the 
> yellowing seed pods and letting them pop in a covered container. I am 
> not sure I am going to plant these but it would be fun to try them from 
> seed. Maybe I will get other colors. The one plant I am collecting them 
> from at the moment is not correctly named. I bought it as Alstroemeria 
> Hybrid "Mona Lisa" which was supposed to be red, pink and white but this 
> bloomed yellow with black lines on the upper petals (standards?)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for the information
> 
> Iris Maniac
> Sterling (not Innerst)
>  
> >From: Bill Shear <BILLS@hsc.edu>
> >
> >Sterling and Jan are right that Alstroemerias are very difficult to
> >establish from bare roots and also are hard to transplant.  The 
> tuberous
> >roots grow deep and are very brittle.  I grow a lot of them and have 
> had
> >almost no luck either trying to transplant them within the garden or in
> >establishing purchased roots. I wouls suggest trying established potted
> >plants if you want to get named varieties similar to the ones you find 
> in
> >florists' arrangements.
> >
> >However, they do grow easily from seed, as I explained in an article a 
> year
> >or so ago in FINE GARDENING.  The seed can be purchased from major 
> sources
> >like Park's or Thompson and Morgan.  It should be planted in the late 
> fall
> >or winter and placed in the refrigerator for six weeks.  After taking 
> it
> >out, give gentle bottom heat, and almost every seed will germinate.  
> Move
> >the seedlings while still small to 4" pots and thence to the garden in
> >summer or fall.  They will bloom the next year and increase rapidly if 
> they
> >like your garden.  A loose, organic soil seems best, and in such a soil
> >they can be very weedy (but what weeds!).  Another tip--picking them 
> for
> >the house, be sure you pull up the entire stem (which separates easily 
> from
> >the crown).  This will keep them blooming longer.  They are very
> >long-lasting cut flowers.
> >
> >Last summer (97) I was photographing some beautiful clumps of 
> Alstroemeria
> >aurantiaca (golden yellow and orange) in the Royal Botanical Garden in
> >Edinburgh, Scotland, and one of the gardeners launched into a long 
> tirade
> >about how difficult they were to keep out of the shrubbery and even the
> >lawn.  I haven't tried this species, but the Salter and Ligtu Hybrids 
> both
> >clump up nicely and persist for many years.  There is also a hardy 
> species
> >(to Z6 or 5) called Alstroemeria psittacina.  About 2 ft tall, with 
> rather
> >tubular red flowers marked in black and green. I see that Plant 
> Delights is
> >offering a variegated version of this one.
> >
> >As companions for irises they have the drawback of producing a very 
> dense
> >mass of foliage that can overshadow and crowd the iris plants.  
> However,
> >this usually disappears entirely a few weeks after blooming, to come 
> back
> >in the fall.
> >
> >Bill Shear
> >Department of Biology
> >Hampden-Sydney College
> >Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
> >(804)223-6172
> >FAX (804)223-6374
> >email<bills@hsc.edu>
> >
> >How come you never hear about "gruntled" postal employees?
> >			-IAQ (Infrequently Asked Questions)
> 
>  
> 
> 
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