Quick bloom from seed

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:46:35 PST
Diane wrote
>It never occurred to me that it could be an annual.
>
>The seed packet said A. phillippiana.  It grew amazingly long and
>skinny, and then had a pale pink flower with two lower petals with
>three zones (white, yellow, pink), all streaked magenta.  (so easy to
>augment one's memory with a digital photo.)

A lot of alstroemerias will grow very long and skinny under greenhouse 
conditions; this is annoying, because growing them "hard" will keep them in 
character, but some species are quite tender and will perish even in the 
frame. Diane's description seems to have the flower upside down from the 
botanical perspective, as it's the upper tepals that generally have the 
zones and markings; they are called the "inner uppers" in descriptions in 
English. Diane's description would fit the lighter color form of A. 
philippii (note spelling), particularly if the pale pink tepals had deep 
purple dots at the indented apex, which has a little mucro (point) within 
the indented part. A. philippii has both a coastal and a slightly interior 
distribution within a narrow latitudinal range. I'd expect it to be pretty 
tender. It is a tall species in nature, often growing through shrubs or 
scrambling through rock outcrops, where I've seen it.

Jane McGary


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