Description
A gorgeous species, with 30-40 cm stems bearing splendid clusters of 3-4, bright apricot, orange or pinkish-rose flowers at the end of its growing season, in June. The plants illustrated are the stock offered and this gorgeous orange is what you can expect from them. Deep in the centre of each flower is a small, paler star with contrasting yellow anthers.
A native of low to middle elevations in the central region of Chile, where it grows in sun in dry or arid areas, which receive the bulk of their rainfall between Autumn and Spring, in other words a Mediterranean type climate. It needs plenty of water during its main period of vegetative growth (in early spring) and feeding at this time will help build large bulbs quickly. It then needs a dry summer rest from about June onward. Flowering starts in August but can be as late as September. A trace of water can be given at flowering time until September when watering can resume normally.
This can be grown under the same general conditions as R. bifida in a fertile, well-drained, loam-based compost with good drainage and it is perfectly happy in cool conditions. It is not especially miffy nor fussy but it will not tolerate freezing and grown outside it almost certainly will not be hardy in the long term in the UK. It is far better planted out under frost-free glass or grown in a pot, again in frost-free conditions.
Introduced to our lists June 2020
