I bought a pot of hybrid Alstroemeria "Inticancha Mix" at Home Depot early this summer. The pot was packed full of blooming stems when purchased, but they lasted only a couple of weeks before the stems started going limp and a bit slimy and dying back. The soil (actually sphagnum moss) wasn't kept too wet, but there was rain followed by some hotter sunny days and I thought maybe the stems were too close together and the excess humidity caused some kind of fungal die back. It never produced any new leaves after dying back, but I just emptied out the pot and the tubers look quite healthy. I thought they would be separate tubers, but they are all connected together at the top to one stem. I'd like to try them again next year, but have a few questions. How should I store them? I'm in Vancouver; when should I replant them? How do I avoid last year's wilt problem? Can I remove some tubers to give away, so it won't be so crowded? Should I dig them up every year or just move the pot into the garage or basement? Would they be hardy if planted in a sunny garden here?
Watch it with Alstromeria. I got some inadvertently with another plant given to me by my mother-in-law and it has spread like wildfire. Yes, they're pretty and make good cut flowers, but maybe not so nice as a monoculture! I dig/rip them out constantly. The roots are kind of tuber-like but less so than dahlias, for example, and seem to "run" like stolons. Trust me, I have done zip to keep them and they love it. What seems to slow them down is dryness, thank goodness. keke
I finally dug out ALL of my alstroemeria tubers and put some in pots to try and keep them in check as they were taking over the garden bed. I leave them outside, in pots, all winter but I do tuck the pots into a sheltered area against a wall and give them a generous dry mulch on top of the soil as well as packing straw around the pots. In the spring, I lift the whole mass out of the pot, lob off some of the roots & loosen the rest, mix in some fresh compost and place the pots in a sunny, protected area (against a rock wall, where they seem to enjoy the reflected heat from the stones). Blooming time is short lived, so when they finish I just move the pots into the background. Seems to work fine and there's no more digging out those endless tubers!