Alstroemeria Duc d'Anjou Edouard

The Astroemeria 'Duc d'Anjou Edouard' is part of a series of hybrid Inca lilies that brings together several medium-sized, hardy and floriferous varieties, with varied colours, particularly suitable for mass planting. This selection is adorned with brightly coloured flowers in a violet pink shade adorned with contrasting macules at the throat and beautifully streaked with brown. An exotic flowering that renews itself from late spring until late in the season. This variety can withstand winter in open ground in most of central Europe, under a mulch that will protect the stumps from cold and excessive humidity. Its flowers are also very durable in a vase.

The Alstroemeria 'Duc d'Anjou Edouard' is a recent horticultural variety, selected near Angers. All modern Inca lilies are hybrids of several tuberous species native to South America, particularly the Chilean Andes. These high-altitude plants belonging to the amaryllidaceae family show varying degrees of hardiness, appreciate moist, well-drained soils in a light and cool wooded area. Slow to establish, they can disappear or... become invasive! Eccentric and fantastic plants, very sensitive to growing conditions, they are "indestructible" once you have found the right place for them.

'Duc d'Anjou Edouard', like all plants in the series, can withstand short freezes of around -15°C in a well-drained soil and under a mulch. The plant quickly forms dense clumps composed of leafy stems that are 50 cm tall when flowering, with a spread of 40 cm. The flowering is renewed from June to October. The flowers are gathered in terminal umbels. They consist of 3 narrow petals streaked with brown, the two upper ones having a bright white, yellow and dark pink macule, surrounded by 3 broader petals of a solid, bright violet pink. The foliage is arranged on the upper part of the stems. The leaves of this variety are dark green with a slight bluish tint. The plant disappears in winter, leaving only the trailing stump with fleshy roots underground. The latter is sensitive to the shock of transplantation, especially in older plants.

The Alstroemeria 'Duc d'Anjou Edouard' thrives in mass plantings, where it forms a magnificent and highly flowering bouquet for weeks. Place it in small groups among grasses, daylilies, gauras or heleniums for example. It can also be paired with other Duke of Anjou Inca lily varieties and have blue lobelias or Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, with intensely blue flowers and red foliage in October, planted at its feet. Its exotic flowers last 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.