Alstroemeria uc d'Anjou Jean

The Astroemeria 'Duc d'Anjou Jean' is one of the most beautifully coloured among this series of medium-sized Inca lilies and is hardy, particularly suited for ornamental borders. This one is adorned with delightful flowers, striped in the throat, with a particularly refined colour combination of pink and salmon orange to white, with a touch of yellow and green. An exotic flowering that renews itself from late spring to late season. This variety can withstand winter in the open ground in most of our regions, under a mulch that protects the stumps from cold and excessive humidity. Its flowers are also very long-lasting in a vase.

The Alstroemeria 'Duc d'Anjou Jean' is a recent horticultural variety, selected near Angers. All modern Incan lilies are the result of hybridisation of several tuberous species native to South America, particularly the Chilean Andes. These high-altitude plants belonging to the amaryllidaceae family are more or less hardy, appreciate moist, well-drained soils in lightly wooded and cool areas. Slow to establish, they can disappear or ... become invasive! Whimsical and fantastic plants, very sensitive to growing conditions, they are indestructible once you have found the right spot for them.

'Duc d'Anjou Jean', like all the plants in the series, can withstand short frosts of around -15 °C in a very well-drained soil and under mulch. The plant quickly forms dense clumps composed of leafy stems that are 50 cm in height when flowering, with a spread of 40 cm. Flowering occurs from June to October. The flowers are gathered in terminal umbels. They consist of 3 narrow bicoloured petals, white and salmon striped with brown, with the two upper ones having a yellow blotch, surrounded by 3 wider petals, also bicolored salmon and white, but tinged with aqua green on the edge. The foliage is arranged on the upper part of the stems. The leaves of this variety are dark green with a slight bluish tinge. The plant disappears in winter, only the trailing stump with fleshy roots remaining underground. The latter is sensitive to transplant shock, especially in older plants.

The Alstroemeria 'Duc d'Anjou Jean' thrives in borders, where the plant forms a magnificent bouquet with abundant flowers for weeks. Place it in small groups among grasses, daylilies, gauras or Heleniums for example. It can also be paired with other varieties of Duke of Anjou Incan lilies, and planted with blue lobelias or Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, with intensely blue flowers and red foliage in October. Its exotic flowers last for several days in a vase, up to 3 weeks if the water is changed every week, the leaves that have fallen into the water are regularly removed, and the base of the stems is recut.