I thought the name of this plant was Alstroemeria phillippii, but anyway, I have been trying to grow it for some years, and as Roy says, it is a perennial. However, as Diane found, it elongates extremely when grown in warm conditions, and for me it does not flower in the conservatory. In the bulb frame, it is very susceptible to frost, and I think I lost 2 of my 3 pots of it last winter, although it flowers much better there and sets seed. I hope the bits I sent off last summer to warmer climes are alive. It is a truly wonderful beauty. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon At 02:18 PM 5/10/2004 -0700, you wrote: >>I have just added a picture of Alstroemeria philippiana to the wiki: >>http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… >> >>I sowed 114 seeds of F & W 10575 last December in my warm dining room, >>and they surprised me by germinating in nine days. They grew fast, >>sending long shoots along the window sill. They are each over a metre >>long, and one has a single flower at the very end, 19 weeks from >>germination, 20 weeks from sowing. >> >>Only a quarter to a third of the seeds seem to have germinated. The whole >>lot are in a single pot. I moved them up to bigger pots a couple of >>times, expecting to separate them after they went dormant, but I never >>expected such speedy growth. >> >>This is a desert plant, primed to grow fast as soon as it gets rained on, >>which is a rare occurrence in its home - Atacama/Coquimbo area, Coastal >>Semi-Mediterranean Desert Zone. >> >>A lot of its leaves are drying. I wonder what it will do after ripening >>its seed. On the desert, would it die back, leaving its rhizomes waiting >>years for the next rainfall? Or does it act essentially as an annual? > > >When I grew A. philippiana it behaved as a perennial (in the greenhouse), >but I was not able to divide the rhizome mass and clone the species. > >Roy >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php