A Bloom of Colour: Bringing Alstroemeria to Your Australian Home

Alstroemeria—commonly known as the Peruvian lily—has long been a favourite with gardeners for its not just exotic, orchid like flowers in a rich palette of colours, but also an extraordinarily long vase life. Its presence has soared in Australia over the past 10 years, as more hobbyists and professionals find out how adaptable these South American beauties can be to local conditions.

Whether you cradle them in a generous border, lift them in generous patio tubs or cut armfuls for the kitchen table, Alstroemeria offers months of bloom, with a touch of tropics to your life, without the need for tropic island conditions. Now thanks to the growth of specialist web shops, alstroemeria buy online Australia can be quick and easy for the new gardener wanting to try out a few of this genus, and the old timer, always on the lookout for something new, to track down new cultivars, as well as familiar ones in colours they have never seen before.

Why Alstroemeria does well in Australian conditions

The human influence on our landscapes and seascapes. Despite being in the same country, a huge range of microclimates occur across Australia, from the chill of Tasmania’s high country to the rainforest of Far North Queensland. Luckily Alstroemeria is an accommodating commuter. Hailing from the Andean foothills and the coastal plains in Chile and Brazil, these sparely set, diminutive perennials have adapted to cope with summer drought, pounding downpours and winters as low as 20°F.

Along the coast of NSW and into Southern Queensland, gardeners may regard Alstroemeria as somewhat evergreen, only pausing in mid winter. In Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, the plants will typically die back to the ground and re sprout lushly every spring. It has now spread through the world wherever you live, but the main thing it needs is free-draining soil; water logging is about the only stress that Alstroemeria will not forgive. If you can give it that, preference for sun becomes flexible — full sun in cool parts of the world, dappled shade under a hot sun. Once established, they’ll put down fat underground tubers, which help store up energy for next season’s flower spikes; within two years an unassuming nursery plug becomes a tidal wave of flowers.

Above and Beyond the Classics: A Medley of Cultivars

Modern-day growers have expanded the Alstroemeria palette way, way beyond the ruby-and-gold stripes we are used to seeing in bouquets propped up in our supermarket trolleys. The catalogues these days are full of Raspberry Reds, Watermelon Pinks, Lemon Yellows, Tangerine Oranges, Lavender Blues, near black maroons, even crisp Whites brushed with peppermint green. Breeders in Holland and the UK led this colour coordinated charge but Australian hybridisers now provide their own heat tolerant lines tailored to our extended summers.

Verities such as ‘Inca Ice’ have creamy apricot flowers with a hint of blush and chocolate speckling; ‘Indian Summer’ is copper orange against smoky bronze foliage; ‘Princess Fabians’ is a show-stopper of vivid rosy magenta flowers that stays nice and compact for pot culture.

If you like the look of big, border filling plants, look for listings promoting tall alstroemeria plants for sale– they can grow to more than a metre in height, towering in a stately fashion over accompanying perennials and offering a wealth of stems for cutting.

The Infamous Rootstock: Anatomy and Life Span

The extravagant nature of the blooms might lead to them completely raking the stage but, with Alstroemeria, all is not as it seems but if you understand the rhizome then you're halfway there. Each “crown” is a small cluster of fleshy tubers with thin feeder roots and dormant buds. Plant the crown ten to fifteen centimetres deep — that is shallow enough to warm up quickly at the opening of spring but deep enough to stay out of the way of summer heat spikes.

In the warmer zones, you can divide mature clumps every three to four years to rejuvenate flowering and share the surplus pieces with a friend. In cooler regions, where the crowns are left underground over the winter, the division may be postponed for five years. With a bit of care and maintenance, a single clump unwraps wave after wave of flowers for more than a decade, extending the initial outlay – from a garden centre or Australian online nursery – into excellent value. The indoor and outdoor plants and the pursuit of the garden is a great play and Alstroemeria is cast in a leading rolecolorful, versatile and downright sensational.