How to Grow Alstroemeria
Alstroemeria plants, also known as Peruvian lilies, are mountainous plants native to South America, so they require plenty of good drainage. Recreate this plant's native conditions with helpful information from a sustainable gardener in this free video on growing plants.
Transcript
Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we're going to talk about how to grow Alstroemeria or Peruvian Lily and they're a beautiful plant that's from South America so to figure out where to grow it and how to grow it let's find out where it is native. So Alstroemeria are native to South America. They really like the beach areas up to the mountains of the Andes Mountains and they do really well in mountainous areas as long as they don't freeze hard. You an lose them if they get too cold but they like good drainage, good rocky, good composted soil and they're a little bit of a tricky plant to grow. So Alstroemeria have these real fleshy roots and so they will multiply by the root. Now I found these roots do not like to be out of the ground. They either get moldy or they dry out so you want to always keep soil with them at all times even if you are packing them somewhere else, put them in a pot or a bag of soil so that they have got something to grab on to because by themselves they just don't hold up at all. So when you are planting them they love to bloom in sunny spots but they want good drainage and they can sunburn if it is too hot so they are a little bit tricky to find the perfect spot but basically as long as those roots are covered it will grow. So you want to make sure that all the roots are covered up and not exposed at all but yet you don't want to cover them up too much so about three inches should be just fine. You can put them right into a container or right into the ground but if you live in a real cold climate they might not Winter over so you have got to bring them inside. Now here's another trick about Alstroemeria that many people don't even know. So instead of cutting the stems actually pull them out from the bottom, put your two fingers down and pull it up. So when the flowers are spent just pull the foliage right out, put your two fingers down and pull the foliage out and that will encourage more blooms to come up and you want to leave the blooms to let them come out and they come in bright pinks and yellows and oranges. They're really really pretty but you have got to be careful too because they put off a little bit of a sap that you can be allergic to and it can give you a rash real easily so wear gloves if you have sensitive skin with Alstroemeria. If you live in a warm climate leave them outside all Winter, if you live in a cold climate keep them inside in soil, wet but not soaking wet and not too dry either for the Winter and then throw them out again in the Spring and you'll have beautiful Alstroemeria for many years to come. They're a gorgeous plant.
