TRACKING THE ELUSIVE PERUVIAN LILY.

Byline: Joshua Siskin

Inquiries via e-mail concerning two plants, both suitable for container as well as garden growing, are the focus of this week's column.

Q: I have been looking for a bright yellow flowered alstroemeria for several years. Do you know where I can find one?

- Joyce Nolan

A: It sounds like you are looking for one of the dwarf hybrid types, which, from their descriptions, would be wonderful additions to both the garden and the bouquet. The silky trumpet flowers of alstroemeria are loved by all and, because of their longevity in the vase, have become increasingly popular as cut flowers.

Alstroemeria (al-stro-MAIR-ee-uh), also known as Peruvian lily, is a plant in the lily family that can bloom at any time, including the dog days of summer. It has rhizomatous roots that sustain it through thick and thin. It will survive a drought, even if its leaves shrivel and disappear from lack of water. Cold soil is the limiting factor in its growth. To see its three-inch pastel trumpet flowers blooming on and off throughout the year, make sure it gets regular water during spring and summer.

Maintenance is simple. Simply snap off shoots at the ground once they have stopped blooming and lost their lustrous green color. In Southern California, only hybrid evergreen alstroemerias, generally in the pink to purple color range, and only about 2 feet tall, are sold. But there also exist three- to four-foot golden Peruvian lily (Alstroemeria aurea) varieties, as well as a number of taller hybrids.

Alstroemeria is chic right now. Intensive hybridization efforts have produced bright yellow, orange, and red cultivars to complement the traditional and more subtle pink, rose and mauve. Unfortunately, an Internet search did not turn up mail-order sources for the newer varieties, including bright yellow. There has been a reluctance by the cut flower industry to make alstroemeria rhizomes available to the general public because of the flower's popularity and staying power; when everyone grows alstroemeria - a rapidly developing scenario in any case - no one will have to buy it.

In any event, I did find a good source of information about alstroemeria cultivation at - where else? - www.alstroemeria.com. Perhaps a reader of this column knows of a good mail-order source for alstroemeria that I could pass along.

Q: I planted an aralia last November in a glazed ceramic pot that is about 24 inches in diameter and 15 inches deep with a dish. The root ball appears to be approximately 7-8 inches in diameter. Using bagged potting soil, I've been very diligent in the care of this plant. However, death is nigh! The symptoms look severe. As the new leaves develop, they're bright green but within a day or so, the tips turn brown as if burned. Now the whole plant is beginning to have these symptoms with rapid leaf drop. The location of the pot is in our front entry area. The plant has bright light but no sun and is kept moist but not wet. Any recommendations you can make will be much appreciated.

- Heide Standke

A: It sounds like you have just about killed your plant with too much love, a fairly typical occurrence with novice growers of potted plants, especially indoor plants.

I am assuming that the aralia you describe is Schefflera elegantissima, an eye-catching plant with long, slender, deeply serrated, shiny gray-green leaflets. Like all scheffleras, it is highly tolerant of shade and, once established, not an especially thirsty plant.

Taking a plant with a 7- to 8-inch diameter root ball and putting it in a 24-inch diameter container is not advisable. When you repot a plant, move it into the next largest size container. Container sizes move up in two-inch increments. When you repot into a much larger container, the water needed to keep the unnecessary soil moist has nowhere to go and rots the roots. In addition, store-bought potting soil can be quite heavy.

You should either repot your aralia into a smaller container or, if you insist on keeping it in the larger pot, replace the existing soil with a lighter, fast-draining mix that is half potting soil and half topsoil or sand.

TIP OF THE WEEK: If at all possible, avoid putting dishes under large potted plants. Standing water retained in the dish can lead to fungus problems when roots reach the bottom of the pot.