Alstroemeria are named after a Swedish scientist
Alstroemeria are named after the Swedish botanist Klas von Alstroemeria.
He was a pupil of the great botanical classifier Linnaeus who went to
South America and sent back seeds of this flower.
Alstroemeria is also known as a Peruvian lily and Inca lily.
Alstroemeria leaves are upside down
If you look at the leaf as it leaves the stem, it twists so what should
be the bottom is facing upwards! Presumably the plant must gain some
advantage to have evolved in this way. I have heard two different theories
to explain this; one is that the twist stops water collecting in the
leaf node so reducing the likelihood of fungal infections. The other
explanation is that since a leaf has more stoma on the bottom surface,
by presenting the side with more stoma on the top, the plant can transpire
or respire more efficiently. If you have a better explanation please
let us know!
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Alstroemeria are more like grass than like Chrysanthemums
Alstroemeria belong to the classification of plants known as monocotyledons.
You can see this by looking at the leaves. It has veins going up the
leaves but none branching across. This can also be seen in grasses,
irises and lilies.
This may be important to the gardener since if you used a selective
weed killer on the herbaceous border to control say couch grass it may
well effect other monocotyledons e.g. Alstroemeria, iris and lily
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Alstroemeria sap is an irritant.
Some people can find that the sap of Alstroemeria causes skin irritation.
Research has shown that there is a similar chemical to the one in daffodils
and other narcissus in alstroemeria sap. So if you find that daffodils
affect you take care when handling Alstroemeria
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Alstroemeria have no smell
Unfortunately, like many beautiful flowers, Alstroemeria have no smell.
The plant breeders continue to try breeding in a smell and occasionally
come up with a variety that has a faint perfume but none has yet been
good enough to be produced commercially.
On a very hot still day we occasionally come across a faint perfume
in some of our greenhouses. It is always near the yellow varieties but
it remains too elusive for us to pinpoint it to a particular variety
let alone plant.
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Alstroemeria Dance!
A fascinating time delayed video of an Alstroemeria stem has been produced
by Konst Alstroemeria. This shows an Alstroemeria stem rhythmically
moving from side to side in a spiral motion. At first it was thought
that this was due to the plant following the sun but further examination
showed that the best explanation seemed to be that the plant produced
new cells in a spiral sequence and that this was the cause of the head
moving the way it does. If you look at an Alstroemeria stem you can
sometimes see a spiral growth pattern on the stem. The video
clip is available at the Konst Alstroemeria web site but it does
take a few minutes to download with a dial up connection.
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Most modern hybrid alstroemeria plants are propagated
in a laboratory
Don't worry this is nothing to do with GM technology! A technique called
In vitro or meristem culture is used. This is where the plants are reproduced
by taking tiny sections of the end of the growing tip and growing this
tiny segment on in laboratory conditions in a special gel . This has
two advantages; firstly it is possible to produce many more plants more
quickly from a single specimen than with conventional methods. It also
can eliminate viruses. This is because only the youngest most recently
produced cells are used in propagation and these are removed before
any virus present has time to infest the new growth.
Mother Nature does not let science get its own way though, since some
varieties simply refuse to be propagated this way and have to be propagated
by division.
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Alstroemeria stop producing flowers if they get
too hot.
If the soil temperature rises too high (above about 22 degrees Celsius)
the alstroemeria plant puts its effort into producing more large tuberous
roots at the expense of flowering shoots. With some varieties this can
lead to production of exclusively blind non flowering stems and no flowers.
This is presumably a defence mechanism of the plant to store food and
water in its roots in preparation for an impending drought.
This can be important for the gardener and is a good reason to use a
mulch and to plant where the roots are in the shade. Pots or tubs can
heat up much more quickly than the open ground so be careful to ensure
that they don't spend all day in the full sun.
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Commercial growers refrigerate their greenhouses
Some commercial growers bury coils of pipes into their greenhouse soil
and pump refrigerated water through to keep the roots cool ( about 13-15
degrees Celsius). This can lead to significant increase in flowering
stems and a reduction in blind non flowering stems, but before you move
your fridge to the greenhouse remember it only works for some varieties!
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Not all alstroemeria have striped petals
The plant breeders have produced some varieties with no spots or stripes
on the petals.
Some people love them, some people loathe them. We have a bed of one
such variety, Sweet Finesse. Decide for yourself.
Sweet Finesse
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Alstroemeria in music
There is a record label called Alstroemeria Records. The only information I can find about it appears to be in japanese so I cant really tell you any more about it, although the CD covers all seem to be of cartoon characters.
The guitarist Nels Cline has recorded a CD called The Inkling with a track on it called Alstroemeria. The track is an instrumental over 15 minutes long featuring mainly the acoustic guitar in what is probably best described as modern Jazz style.
Alstroemeria on The Track
There is a race horse in Argentina with the name Alstroemeria. I don't know what his form is like but he looks the part
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Alstroemeria in the Post
Argentina also produced a stamp featuring alstroemeria.
Well South America is the home of alstroemeria
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How do you water your plants?
We use low level drip irrigation for all our plants. The system we
use has a very sophisticated, pressure compensated , non-drip pipe.
This effectively has a valve at each outlet ( every 20 cm) which regulates the flow
and ensures that each dripper opens and shuts at the same time. Clever
stuff. This means that the amount of water given at each irrigation
point is the same no matter how far from the pump. For our cut flower
crop we water most days in the winter and several times a day in the
summer. If this seem a lot don't forget that we grow in heated greenhouses and pull
flowers every week of the year. Also our soil is quite sandy and so free draining and not prone to water logging.
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How much fertilizer do you give and how?
Before we plant a new house we use an organic base fertilizers and
incorporate compost or peat to improve the soil structure. We have also
recently started to use an organic soil fungus supplement. This is a
blend of naturally occurring soil fungi designed to supplement the normal
population and hence compete and drive away any harmful fungi that can
attack the roots.
For our established plants we fertigate . No this is not some strange
propagation technique or ritualistic harvesting scheme but the rather
awkward word used 'in the trade' to describe applying fertilizer with
the irrigation water.
To determine which and how much fertilizers to use, we have our soil
regularly analysed for major and minor elements and compounds.
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How do you control pests and diseases?
One word. Naturally
One of the reasons we chose to specialise in alstroemeria was because
they are effected by very few pests and diseases, so that's a great
starting point.
Keeping the plants healthy also goes a long way to avoiding problems;
we prepare the ground well , improve the structure with peat ( we have
a fairly sandy soil) and incorporate an organic base fertilizer and
soil fungi supplement. We then ensure that the greenhouse environment
and watering is monitored and well controlled.
We did have a problem with slug damage on new shoots but since using
wood shavings as a mulch over the beds and irrigation pipes we have
had no further damage. I think this is due to the fact that the shavings
are too dry and rough for the slugs and snails. One word of warning,
don't use wood shavings for mulch in the garden, the first gust of wind
will blow it all away!
We do get patches of aphids and rely on natural predators to keep the
levels tolerable, very soon after we see a new patch of aphids we almost
always see the signs of aphidus, this is a tiny wasp that lays its eggs
in the aphid and causes the aphid to become a mummified food store for
its young.
We also have resident population of robins in the greenhouses which
help with insect control, but boy do they make a noise and fight over
territory.
For more details see the It's a bugs Life
page.
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