Plant profile: Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily)

Dusty Rose - meh

Latin name: Alstroemeria ("al-stro-eh-MEER-ia")
Common name: Peruvian lily, Lily of the Incas, Ulster Mary
Originally from: south America - mostly central Chile, and eastern Brazil.
Blooms: From early spring through summer.
Light: Full sun to light shade
Water: Rain is plenty. No summer water needed.
Drainage: Excellent
Height x width: A clump will grow to 3'-4' tall and wide, spreading by rhizomes. Plant them about 1' apart.
USDA Zones: 6-10
Where to find in P. Garden: We had a few come in by accident and they seem to have spread - mostly in the front border, brights bed and left bed.

This is another one of those plants I didn't appreciate at first, but which has come to be quite useful! Initially, the ones that showed up by mistake at the garden where just the type of dusty pink color I dislike - that, coupled with their flower's golden throat (bad combo!) and floppy habit made me recoil. I asked Matt to remove them from the front bed but they just laughed at him and multiplied rapidly.

Third Harmonic - fab!

Noting their toughness, I picked up some of the cultivar "Third Harmonic" which is orange and gold (better combo), and they are coming along nicely.

Now, tough can = invasive, and since they spread on rhizomes you may want to watch where you plant them.

They have weird looking roots - sausage-like water storing structures suspended from the rhizome by large roots. The above-ground shoots that pop up may be very short in some alpine Andean species (a few inches tall) or up to about 5 feet tall in other species. Each year (more often in some hybrids) up to 80 new shoots are produced from the rootstock and each ends in a group of 3-10 flowers. So - lots of flowers for your buck!

A funny thing about Alstroemeria is that the leaves are resupinate - they twist from the base so that what appears to be the upper leaf surface is in fact the lower leaf surface. This very unusual botanical feature is easily observed in the leaves on cut flowers from the florist.

Alstroemeria is named after the Swedish botanist Klas von Alstroemer (1736-1796), who was a pupil of the great botanical classifier Linnaeus. Since then, many hybrids and about 190 cultivars have been developed, with different markings and colors, ranging from white, golden yellow, and orange, to apricot, pink, red, purple, and lavender. None of them have much of a scent, but they're very popular in the cut flower industry thanks to the fact they look good in a vase for about 2 weeks.

The most popular and showy hybrids grown today result from crosses between species from Chile (winter-growing) with species from Brazil (summer-growing).  This has resulted in plants that are just about evergreen and flower for most of the year, thanks to  trials that began in the US in the 1980s.

Grow this plant in among other plants that will hold it up - we have ours in with Agapanthus, and they stop the Alstroemerias flopping. Deadheading? Don't bother - just pull the entire stem out with your hand when the flowers fade. More stems will be on their way!

Preparation for a special event

Alstroemeerias in the front bed

We are planning for a special event next weekend. On Sunday April 21st we invite all our volunteers to join us at PRG (Pennsylvania Railroad Garden at 100 Pennsylvania) and see what happens. We can't yet release the details but we think you'll enjoy it :)

With all that in mind, yesterday Matt and I weeded at PRG. Not too many weeds on the fence side, quite a few on the street side. Next weekend on Saturday the 20th we're having a special weeding party to get the block cleaned up for Sunday, so come on down!

Today Matt and I went out to tackle some of the weeds at PG. We did about 2.5 hours of weeding and I worked my way down one side of the left bed, removing a ton of weeds. I also noticed that the lavender Watsonias we transplanted there last year are flowering at last! There's a clump of white ones nearby that are getting ready to flower too.

Cardoon haircut

As I was cutting back the cardoon that's always flopping into the pathway (not to self: move it when it does back) I discovered the old leaves lying under it are a very effective weed barrier mulch. I added a few of the newly-cut leaves under the plant to suppress more weeds. The rest will make great compost.

Cleanup day becomes week!

My garden helper for most of the week was my grumpy cocker spaniel Bentley (pic) who was often not content to be at the bench by himself. Fortunately he doesn't mind lounging on burlap, so I set him up by me while I deadheaded and generally cleaned out the front left bed.

Echinacea purpurea

There is lots to do around the garden any time of the year, but at the end of Summer as it starts to transition to Fall, well, things can start to look a little ratty. The shaggy Agapanthus starts to loose its color, Alstroemerias flop, and corn marigolds turn crisp...this list goes on and on! While many plants are finishing their summer show right now many others are gearing up - be sure to check out some of the Agastaches, Salvias and Aster that are all Fall bloomers.

One picture shows our grouping of three Echinacea in the brights bed on the way to the dog area, they should flower throughout the Fall.

The Linaria purpurea (pic) by the bench is even giving a second go of it, and with a little cutting back, may continue to flower. That plant has been an unexpected winner for us at the garden - I highly recommend it for a partial shade spot in your backyard.

Linaria purpurea

Thievery

Alstroemeria
"Third Harmonic"

More thefts at the garden yesterday. I had heard that the thief was taking the plants to a Mission flea market so I went down to the Alemany flea market as it was on my way elsewhere. I did have a good time browsing, but none of my plants showed up...

Today I went out to water - we have a number of potted plants and newly planted plants that need a little drink. I rearranged all the potted ones so they're easier to water, gave the compost heap a water too (compost needs to be damp) and did a little trimming and weeding too.

Ecology

Matt's new project

Today I met Crima and hr group of 16 ecology students from City College at the garden to give them a tour of the PG, and of the SPUR project (now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Garden) and Mariposa Center Garden down the street too. They were all nice and asked lots of questions - hopefully I answered them without rambling to much!

In the meantime, Matt was busy on a project. He cleared out under the Pittosporum tree at the top of the garden and planted three Echium pininana (Giant Viper's bugloss), surrounded by lots of the Lychnis coronaria (Rose Campion) that John gave us recently. Should make for quite a dramatic little bed!

After the tour left I weeded the bed formerly known as the red bed, but which we are now calling the "bright bed" since it contains bright colored flowering perennials. Calling it the red bed led to an obsessive fixation with buying only red-flowered plants for that area which was becoming quite monotonous!

Morel mushrooms

I planted a variegated Dianella tasmanica, an orangey Kniphofia "Yellow Cheer," several Alstroemeria "Third Harmonic," a group of three Helichrysum bracteatum "Monster Rose," and another group of three Oenothera versicolor "Endless Orange."

Got everything watered in, mulched and done. Pow! 


Bottom pic shows some morel mushrooms that Dee pointed out to me yesterday. Fancy!

Happy Birthday Pennsylvania Garden!

Emily, Josh, Matt and Bonnie joined me in the garden today, and we enjoyed a little pizza (thanks Matt!) and a little gardening. Gary and Carrie were by too - Gary has plans for the side of his building, and Carrie made a great contribution (below)!

- Planted several Alstroemeria "Third Harmonic" in the red bed, and an Arctotis "The Ravers: Unmellow Yellow" in the left bed
- Planted some Aloes and various succulents in the succulent slope
- Moved some Phormiums around
- Planted a Verbascum olympicum in the left bed
- Carrie added a city wheelie bin for dog poop (thus making emptying much easier - THANKS Carrie!)
- Emily planted a slew of bulbs and seeds she brought:
Plants: Anemone "Blue",  Anemone coronaria '"His Excellency" (red), Ranunculus tecolete "Red"
Seeds: Delphinium 'Black Knight", Nicotiana '"Tinkerbell"
- Watered some areas in advance of the rains due next week: got to get the ground damp so the rain will penetrate the mulch.
- Deadheaded some Cannas
- Moved the big pile of orange tree branches left for us by Jo (Thanks Jo!)

It was really fun. I couldn't have imagined such a great group of friends working on the garden when it all started last year: I really though it would just be a few plants and nothing else. Just goes to show - when you keep your expectations nice and low, anything can happen ;)

Damp ground

After Friday's rains the soil at P Garden was nice and damp. Perfect for planting and for weeding!

Today's volunteer day had a nice turnout. Leah, Josh, Janet and Anna came by to help out, and we got tons done! It was really heartwarming to look around and see everyone busy in the garden, having a good time.

- Planted 6 Gazanias in the front bed
- Weeded lots of Nasturtiums out
- Planted 6 Iberis under the cherry trees
- Raised the canopies of the cherries by removing low branches so the view of the bench is improved
- Planted a flowering cactus in the cactus wall bed
- Planted a yellow dwarf Canna behind the wong way sign
- Planted orange Alstroemerias ("Third Harmonic") and Irises in the red bed
- Watered
- Planted 2 Arctotis "The Ravers: Unmellow Yellow", a Pennisetum glaucum "Purple Majesty" (Ornamental Millet) and a Pennisetum setaceum "Red Riding Hood" in the left bed
- Saw a Black Phoebe (bird)
- Planted a small tree fern and a Pyrrosia hastata (Felt Fern) from Leah.
- Chatted with the usual stream of visitors to the garden

One of the best things today was discovering that the bottom bin of the worm composter was full of usable worm castings. I used them on almost all the plantings today - I expect those plants will grow like rockets!

Death to Nasturtiums! Death, I tell you!

Today, despite a little hangover (it's Halloween, come on) Matt and I managed to remove all the Nasturtiums in the front bed. 4 wheelbarrows full!  You can see in the pic at left about half the pile we removed.

I spent the whole time remembering myself skipping about the garden back in Spring, gaily flinging Nasturtium seeds around, and imagining the festive yellow and orange flowers we'd have. Hah! What we got instead was rampant overgrowth of self-seeding, plant-suffocating evilness. Hopefully we sorted that problem out today.

Matt also moved some Alstroemerias to the cherry tree area, I weeded, watered and tidied the bed behind the wrong way sign, and deadheaded Cannas. There's a massive new crop of corn marigolds coming up from the seeds that fell there - great news!

Speaking of Halloween, you can also see a scarecrow in the pic today. Annelle and Gary wanted to put it in the garden for Halloween - I keep seeing it from the corner of my eye and thinking someone's standing there! I'm a bit of a garden purist and am not fond of decorations and statuary but they managed to get me to agree to this as a one time deal. Ooooh, they are just too darn nice. Curses! ;)

Since the rain we had recently a lot of weeds have sprung up. Going to need to have a weeding party next weekend. Anyone want to join us on Saturday the 7th, 11am-1pm?

Time for a change

Fall is a good time to plant plants, and move things to better spots - mostly because the cool air and rains help the plants get established so they can go berserk in Spring. If you live in San Francisco you can't fail to have noticed the rain we've had recently, so the ground is good and wet.

So today I moved some things around, with the excellent help of Josh!

The middle back bed (with the Princess Plant) was looking too purple. I had originally intended the area to be purple withyellow/orange as a contrast, but several plants showed up that ended up being too pinkish or blueish. This was really jarring to my eye, so they had to go.

There were also too many shades of purple and not enough yellow to balance it, so two Geranium macrorhizum and all the dusty pink Alstroemerias moved under the cherry plum trees where they can be pink without annoying me ;) A Ceanothus went up to the top of the garden. We also rearranged the Lantanas, Stachys, Cuphea, Acorus and Bulbines in a better way, and brought a Euryops over for added yellow. When I move the Salvia "Anthony Parker" there will be room for another mid-sized yellow flowering shrub. Any ideas?


Josh also brought three Agave tequilana for the garden - Matt will be thrilled! ;) We pulled out a wheelbarrow full of weeds, and decided that the best way to deal with the annoying soggy spot outside this bed, which has resisted two attempts to fix it, will be improved by a French drain running across the path under the wood chips. In other words, I need about two yards of gravel.

I also finished drilling the final piece of wood for the bench area and pounded it in, rearranged the bricks a bit and added sand. All I have to do now is cut a few bricks in half to fill the end gaps, plant some ground cover and it's done!

Lots of new flowers in the garden!













L: Lotus berthelotii (Parrot's Beak, Coral Gem)
R: Agapanthus with Nasturtiums and California poppies behind













L: Kniphofia uvaria (Red Hot Poker)
R: Hemerocallis (Day Lilly)













L: Alstromeria (Peruvian Lilly)
R: Buddleja (Butterfly Bush)