Philesia magellanica

[P. Kohn]

I posted queries about this plant some time ago so I thought I had better start again.  We have a plant at home which was lost behind our meconopsis so it was moved nearer the path. Last year it flowered prolifically and is doing so again but it really isn't getting any larger. If the flowers are evolved for hummingbird pollination they would need to walk in (with heads bent to the ground). We have read that afternoon sun is to be avoided but this site gets a lot of sun at this time of year. Should I move it again ?  Has anyone succeeded in growing Philesia to three feet in British conditions and, if so. after how many years ? 

WE also put three plants in the Liliales bed in Sheffield Botanic Gardens. These plants have been in for a year and a half and again seem scarcely to have grown and are not yet flowering but at least look a healthier colour. This bed is in shade for much of the day - good for Philesia nut not so brilliant for some of the other Liliales.

[arilnut]

Found this in a search.

 "This plant requires cool, moist conditions to thrive, and also a lot of patience, since it is slow-growing."

John

[Maggi Young]

Where I have seen this plant doing really well, it has been in a  raised  shady bed or on a   mossy treestump in similar conditions.

[Martin Sheader]

We grow Philesia magellanica not very well in Southampton. After many years it has a spread of about 40cm and produces only 3-4 flowers in a good year. We grow it in a dry sandy shady raised bed. Mitraria growing alongside it grows and flowers well.
In the wild we have never seen this reaching more than 50cm height / spread so I don' think you will ever get it to 3 feet. It usually grows on shady banks or tree stumps in humid woodland.
The best plant I have seen is grown by Peter Erskine in West Sussex. He grows is in part shade on top of a low wall with other shrubs behind it. His soil is sandy, but because his garden is on a steep slope, water gradually seeps down, though even here it can be dry in summer. His plant is spectacular, producing a mass of flowers every year. I think it is in part the result of the particular clone he has and I understand that a nursery is propagating it at the moment. It should be available in the near future. 

[Martin Sheader]

With regards to pollination, the common hummingbird where this grows in the far south is the giant hummingbird Patagona gigas which is quite happy to perch or stand on the ground to feed. We have seen it feeding on Ourisia ruellioides at ground level, though much further north in Peru we have seen it hovering to feed on Caiophora flowers.

[Maggi Young]

With regards to pollination, the common hummingbird where this grows in the far south is the giant hummingbird Patagona gigas which is quite happy to perch or stand on the ground to feed. We have seen it feeding on Ourisia ruellioides at ground level, though much further north in Peru we have seen it hovering to feed on Caiophora flowers.

Which seems a good  point to congratulate Martin and Anna-Liisa on their  excellent article on stinging plants from South America in the recent AGS bulletin.   

[P. Kohn]

Many thanks for the information about the humming birds. TV nature programmes always show humming birds hovering so it is really surprising to think of them feeding from the ground. My plant has had maybe 15 blooms this year and is now 20cm high, 30 cm acoss with five or so bare branches with tufts of leaves at the end extending a further 15cm. This still seems tiny to me having seen pictures of our friend Ed Ley-Wilson camping amongst plants in Tierra del Fuego which appeartde to be several feet high (he was puzzled that we were more excited by the plants than by his difficulty in making camp when he made a long kayak expedition through the area. I will try yet again to post a picture of my plant, probably as a separate post but I will probably still end up asking Maggi for help. Haven't yet succeeded in posting an image that the site accepts.