Bomarea

These pics were taken at the Strybing Aboretum in San Francisco last August. They show two rather different species of Bomarea, a horticulturally interesting but poorly known genus of vines related to Alstroemeria. They are spectacular plants from central and South America, and are rarely if ever grown here in the East. I've grown some from seed in the past, and have some others right now at school grown from both seed and purchased plants. They aren't the easiest things to manage indoors because they are vines, and I found out when growing them at NYBG years ago that they did not appreciate total drought during dormancy either. I hope next summer to have flowers on some of the ones I am growing now. I am keeping them in growth through the winter, and they appear to be fine so far. One I am particularly curious to see the flowers of was started from refrigerated seed given to me many years ago by a collector from Peru, so I have no idea what species it is. In fact, it seems as though the classification of this genus is a real mess, but one thing is for sure, any species you might come across will be a worthwhile addition to any plant collection.