The most vigorous Alstroemeria in my garden is one I grew from seed collected at a fairly low elevation in hills near Chile's Valle Central. I think it's A. ligtu subsp. incarnata. It's very large and produces masses of flowers most of the summer. Fortunately I have it confined to a huge sand and gravel berm, where I also grow some other alstros, tulips, and the western North American genus Hastingsia, punctuated by whatever wildflowers happen to seed in, such as lupines, foxgloves, Gilia capitata, Solidago, and California poppy. And weeds, of course. (Reading John Ingram's posting, I'm motivated to include Zauschneria [current name Epilobium canum] in the mix; it could rampage at will, and it would flower after the alstros so the colors wouldn't clash.) This alstro happily survives winter temperatures below 20 F, though the emerging foliage can be damaged a bit, and stocks the house with cut flowers all on its own. Seeds like mad, too, but mostly into the gravel path, which I spray with Round-up. The flowers are warm pink with yellow, very large, and as many as 25 per inflorescence. The habit is lax, so it would not please a cutflower breeder. I also have A. aurea in the garden, but it behaves itself, perhaps because my plants stem from near the northern limit of its distribution, where the plants tend to be smaller than those in the forests of Patagonia. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA