How to grow... Alstroemeria

Striped or freckled, these profuse bloomers will continue to fill your perennial border with colour for weeks if given the right care, says Anne Swithinbank

- Anne Swithinbank

PERUVIAN lily (or lily of the Incas) is a suitably exotic name for a group of plants well known as a popular and long-lasting cut flower. Their funnel-shaped blooms are individually stunning and deserve close inspection to appreciate the contrasting shades, spots and dashes shown by the six petals or tepals. Breeding work has produced a wide range not just of flower colours but also plants of different heights, and some cultivars are able to tolerate low temperatures in chilly gardens.

Canny gardeners are increasingly appreciating the value of alstroemerias as garden plants, and they enjoy these plants in containers or planted out to brighten exotic and mixed borders. Short-growing cultivars are perfect for solving problem areas such as difficult narrow borders. Flowers open in summer, with plants often producing two or three rounds of buds lasting from June to autumn if they are sufficiently well grown and deadheaded.