By Monica Ewing, Sunset senior designer
Last July, I wrote about flowers and foliage that have longer vase life. One of the flowers I mentioned was alstroemeria. Honestly, I had no idea what alstroemeria looked like in person. The online photos I found didn't help much. Then last month Sunset had some flowers leftover from a photo shoot. Among them were alstroemeria. I grabbed a bunch of reddish and coral-color blooms and decided to put them to the test.
The photo above was taken the day after I brought them home. I had trimmed the stems, stripped the leaves from the bottom part, and placed them in water mixed with a plant food packet that they came with.
Two weeks later, I took this photo. They opened up more; the leaves were a little droopy, but overall they looked great. (The pinker color in this image is because of different lighting.) That's the last photo I took because someone (ahem, me) accidentally let them go dry one day. Despite that, they continued to look beautiful for a few more days. I'm convinced they could have lasted a month with proper care.
So, I'm a big fan of alstroemeria. They're not roses, but they're gorgeous—and they stay gorgeous for much longer.
