Quick bloom from seed
Jane McGary (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