Maintenance & Care

GROWING ADVICE: Maintenance & Care

 

How Should I Care for My Plants After I Have Planted Them?

Feeding

  • Alstroemeria are hungry plants so regular weekly feeds through growing season from May to September is recommended and will encourage the plant to flower well and repeatedly. A high potash fertiliser is recommended such as our Alstroemeria Feed.

 

Mulching

  • All of the alstroemeria plant varieties we grow are garden winter hardy but for the first couple of winters while they are establishing it will be best to mulch well to make sure your new plants are protected until they are well established and can get through the winter without any assistance.

 

Watering

  • Alstroemeria are reasonably drought tolerant but will need regular watering during the summer months. If your alstroemeria are planted in containers these tend to dry out quicker so make sure to keep the ground moist but don’t over water.
  • Alstroemeria need free draining soil, this is essential for the plants to grow well and the plant to establish in the normal way. The root system don’t like to be waterlogged, this can cause the roots to rot and the plant to die.

 

Picking Flowers

Alstroemeria make wonderful flowers in a vase and can last up to several weeks. A few tips for picking your own alstroemeria are as follows.

  • By pulling the flowering stem at the base and ripping it from the ground encourages the plant to re-flower and produces another bud under the ground and continue to flower through the Summer while having a continuous supply of fresh flowers for the vase.
  • It is best to allow the plant to become firmly established so at least one Summer to pass after planting until employing this method. You can still have fresh flowers by cutting them instead until the roots have taken hold in the ground and cannot be dislodged.

 

Dead heading

  • Once all the flowers in a cluster head have faded and died, remove the whole stem with a gentle tug, the same method as picking. This encourages further flower stems to sprout and keeps the plant looking neat and tidy, it also prevents the plant from wasting energy on producing seeds at the expense of more flowers.