Alstroemeria: two weeks in a vase, meaning and care

Alstroemeria is the reason a supermarket bouquet still looks alive on day ten. Every mixed bunch in Ireland has some in it, most buyers could not name it, and it outlasts every other flower in the wrapping except the carnations. Two weeks is normal.

The trick is in how the stem is built. Each one carries a small cluster of flowers at different stages, so as the first bloom goes over the buds behind it open, and the stem renews itself twice before it finishes.

What alstroemeria means

Friendship, mutual support and devotion. Like the freesia, this is modern florist convention rather than old tradition: alstroemeria arrived in European horticulture from South America too late for the Victorian flower lists and became a commercial cut flower only in the second half of the twentieth century.

Florist copy often adds a story about the twisted leaves standing for the twists and turns of a friendship. The leaves do twist, a genuine botanical feature called resupination in which the leaf rotates almost fully as it grows. The meaning attached to it is a sales line, not folklore, and it is worth separating the two.

What alstroemeria really says in Ireland is that somebody bought a nice mixed bunch. That is not a criticism.

Season in Ireland

No Irish crop, and no meaningful Irish season. Cut alstroemeria comes from Dutch and Colombian glasshouses every week of the year at a steady price.

Alstroemeria does grow outdoors in Ireland, and well. The hardy Ligtu hybrids flower in Irish gardens from June to August and spread happily in a warm border, which is where the seasonal months on this page come from. Garden stems are shorter and softer than the imported ones and last about a week.

The steady supply is why alstroemeria is priced the way it is. A bunch of ten stems costs about the same in Ireland in January as in July, and works out at roughly a euro per stem for a fortnight of flower. Nothing else sold here is close on that measure except carnations, and the two of them together are the reason a cheap mixed bouquet can outlast an expensive one.

When to send them, and when not to

Alstroemeria suits anywhere the flowers need to keep going without much attention: a hospital or nursing home where the rules allow flowers, an office, a house with someone recovering, or a family in the week after a funeral. Longevity is a kindness in all of those.

It works for Irish Mother's Day in March as the backbone of a mixed bunch with tulips and daffodils, where it holds the arrangement together for a fortnight after the spring flowers have gone over.

Do not send it alone as the whole gift for a significant occasion. It is a supporting flower and reads that way. Do not send it to anyone with sensitive skin who will be handling the stems repeatedly, for the reason in the questions below. And if the recipient has a cat, note that the name Peruvian lily is misleading: it is not a true lily and does not carry the same danger.

Care

Cut 2cm off each stem on a slant and put them straight in water.

Then strip the leaves, and strip more than feels right. Alstroemeria foliage yellows well before the flowers fade, and a stem with most of its leaves removed looks fresh for the full fortnight. Any leaf below the water line has to go regardless.

Pull the spent flowers off the head as they go over, so the remaining buds open cleanly.

Change the water every third day and re-cut. Keep the vase away from a radiator and out of direct sun. The flower is not fussy, and that is its point: it is one of the few things you can send to somebody who will not look after it and expect them to still have flowers a fortnight later. See how it compares on vase life by flower.