Alstroemeria Princess Paola

Alstroemeria Princess Paula with a little cosseting will grow in the cooler climate of Aberdeen

Last Autumn we decided that for the next year we would use less annuals in the back garden. One perennial which we felt could be useful for the front of the border was the Alstroemeria, which performs rather well in Aberdeen, in the past it was normally the taller varieties for the centre of the border which we had.

On this occasion as I said, it was plants for edging that we were looking for. I did not realise that there were quite so many dwarf varieties of Alstroemeria available.

The one above Princess Paola is a little beauty, growing to a height of 8 inches in our garden. The shades of pink and yellow with brown markings has made this plant a real treat, in spite of the poor Summer which we have had.

The Princess Lilies are said to flower from June until November.  In our Aberdeen garden, as can be expected the blooms did not start to show until the end of the first week of July. We planted these at the end of September last year whilst they were actually in full bloom, and they did indeed continue to flower until the first week of November in that very year.

Alstroemerias are said to be hardy and cope well in Winters where the temperature does not go below minus 10c.  Although Aberdeen is in one of the coldest areas of the UK the city seldom gets prolonged spells of minus 10c, move inland a little and it gets much colder.  However having said that, last Winter was bitterly cold and it fell to as low as minus 16c on one occasion.

 I fully followed the planting instructions, and at the beginning of last Winter, mulched the plants heavily with garden compost to protect the roots. I cleared away the mulch at the