"What's in a name? That which we call Alstroemeria, by any other name would still remain odorless yet most appealing."

Shakespeare would have definitely used this phrase had Klas von Alstroemer, the discoverer of Alstroemeria's seed, born a few centuries earlier. Alstroemerias, the unscented, delightful genus of flowering plants, are increasingly gaining popularity in the flower world owing to its exquisiteness, elegance and long container life. They are endowed with various name; Lily of the Incas, Peruvian Lily, Parrot Lily being some of them.

Typically grown in the South American region, Alstroemeria is named after Klas von Alstroemer, the Swedish botanist. It is indeed an exclusive icon of God's artistry with its variety of shades and blends of spots or strips of contrasting colors. Its distinctive characteristic is its upside down twisted leaves. The wide color palette of Alstroemeria includes white, purple, orange, red, pink, yellow amongst the others. The availability is all year round; spring and summer being the zenith of production.

Each member of Alstroemeria's family of about 50 has some distinctive attribute. Hybrid, the most popular one, dresses in orange attire and is comparatively taller and stiffer. Although from the same family, 'Sweet Laura' is scented, thus standing apart from the rest. As the name portrays, 'Spider Lily' gives an impression of a spider, but an attractive one. 'Pacific Sunset' has a wide wardrobe including hues of pinks and yellows, while 'Freedom' presents itself in red and white. 'Inca Alstroemerias' in particularly are suitable for gardens or pots owing to their short height.

Unlike various plants, the cultivation of Alstroemerias is easier and simpler. The soil need to be fertile and must be kept moist all throughout. The temperature of soil needs to be kept cool. If it rises above a certain level, 20 degrees Celsius approximately, Alstroemeria would produce lesser or no flowers at all; the energy is transferred to the roots instead of the petals. As for the climate, their growth is best suitable in partial sun shade in sunny season. They require regular fertilizing in their maturing times. Although not too vulnerable to infectivity, you need to be cautious when it comes to certain pests and bugs like and Aphids, spiders, slugs, caterpillars, white flies etc.

Alstroemeria twin features, beauty and long urn life (upto 3-4 weeks) has made it stand amongst the most loved flowers of the world. Especially, they are being widely used as wedding, birthday and Valentine gifts. As soon as you receive Alstroemerias, bed them in a vase, container or pot. You need to be watchful while arranging them, keeping in view the sensitivity of the baby lilies. Although rare, Alstroemerias may cause allergic effects; try not to hold them for too long or use gloves as a safety measure.

Once a part of your herd, the baby lilies require constant care. They are always dehydrated and seeking water and that too, lukewarm. You need to refill your pot with lukewarm water at least twice a day or they would wilt. Removing dried or damaged petals or flowers also gives a boost to their life. Like other flowers, it is recommended to remove the Alstroemerias from the pot once or twice a week, change the water and cut the bottom of the stem an inch or half at least, in an angular shape. This process perks up the water ingestion of botanical life.

For Alstroemeria lovers, who wish to grow it at their homes, they will have to use large containers or pots owing to its rhizomatous roots. Nevertheless, they can plant them in their lawns too but with care, as the vulnerable roots can easily blemish all your effort. Give them sunlight and quench them well with water and they will remain ever smiling. As for fragrance, believe it or not, its enchanting loveliness and splendor will not let your mind swerve that way!

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Sitting on top of the world, looking down on creation...

I don't remember the rest of the song and we were over 10,000 feet short of the top of the world but it was a pretty good view anyway. Finally, a dream of about two years was completed. I made it to the top of El Misti, the volcano right outside of Arequipa, Peru, that had been calling my name since I first saw it about two years before. I tried to climb it as a day hike then but failed due to a very late start and not being used to the altitude, reaching only about 15, 500 feet. I still think it can be done as a day hike so that is a future goal.

I had been waiting eagerly for my friends Jason and Lisa, SCARAB (Southern California Adventure Racing Buddies) members from Los Angeles, to get to here. We had been communicating by email for months as they were on a round the world trip and we wanted to get together when they came through Peru. Our schedules kept changing but at the last minute they meshed and we were able to meet a couple of times in Arequipa. I arranged the use of a Suzuki 4x4 and Jason and I made plans to climb El Misti on Saturday and Sunday. Lisa decided to relax in Arequipa so we drafted her to be our chauffeur as it is not safe to leave a vehicle at the trailhead. We did some quick shopping, and after getting lost on the way to the trailhead, we arrived safely and were ready to start hiking at 12:30 pm. We were told that it was a five hour climb to the campsite but we were hoping it would be less because that would have meant arriving at camp about the time it got dark. I also realized that we were on a different trail than the one I had attempted two years before so it was a totally new trail to me (there are three routes up to the summit).

We were well matched, my year of living at 8,800 feet and hiking regularly at altitudes of over 12,000 feet made up for my age and Jason's (relative) youth and three weeks of high altitude hiking in Peru made up for his living at sea level in L.A. We followed an easy trail up to the campsite at about 15,000 feet, arriving there in three hours and 10 minutes. We were glad that we hadn't left earlier and had to just sit around in the cool wind. This also gave us hope that the supposedly five to seven hour hike to the summit should be less than that. We had also been told to expect temps as low as zero degrees so were thankful that it was warmer than normal. Helped by the cloud cover it didn't get below 30 degrees, so we were plenty warm in our 20 degree bags and my cheap Wensel tent.

After we got camp set up, Jason suggested scouting out the trail to the summit, as we planned on leaving about 5:00 in the morning and weren't sure if we could find it in the dark. We easily found the trail and hiked up about 20 minutes to another campsite; the people there said they planned on starting for the summit at about 2:00 am. By the time we got back down to our camp, the wind had died down and it felt warmer, especially after hot chicken noodle soup with tuna, cheese and bread and some tea. I used my soda can stove, which worked fine, after removing the windshield; I guess it needed a bit more air at that elevation too. Our campsite neighbor, a Frenchman suffering from the altitude wasn't looking too good, we found out he didn't attempt the summit. We were still below the clouds so got a great view of Arequipa as the lights came on and the quarter moon illuminated Misti above us. By 7:00 pm we were in our sleeping bags, hoping to get a good night's sleep before the 4:00 am alarm.

Following a breakfast of instant oatmeal, we were on the trail at 4:45 in the morning, climbing by headlights, with very little trouble following the trail. We could see the lights of other climbers, which seemed a long ways above us. Again it was a fairly easy trail, not too much sand (unlike the trail from my previous attempt) and enough large rocks to make it interesting, but also harder to see the trail. By this time I was deeply regretting my forgetting my gloves as I hurriedly packed for the trip but Jason said his hands were warm enough and let me use his - thanks Jason!

About the time it got light, we caught up to two other groups that had started earlier but were climbing very slow. One of the guides asked if one of his team members could follow us up so Steve joined us, again a very good match as we were all climbing at the same slow steady speed, taking very short breaks every so often. We soon lost sight of those below us and never saw them again until we got back down to their camp; unfortunately they had to turn back and were not able to reach the summit. When we were about a half hour away, we could see a large group standing on the summit. They had gone up a shorter route on the backside; we met them later after they had explored the crater. We finally got some sunlight when we reached a saddle between the summit and the crater, which really felt good. We had been climbing up the dark side, away from the sun, which made it very cool but we were also treated to a great view of Misti casting a shadow over miles of landscape when the sun rose on the other side. At 8:55, after crossing a couple of small snow patches and a couple of sandy stretches, we were on the summit at 19,100 feet, four hours and 10 minutes from camp. We marveled at the huge iron cross, about 20 feet high that was up there. It was constructed in sections; each about three feet long. I couldn't have carried even one section up there. We were hoping that it had been helicoptered up so that weren't totally put to shame by the super humans it would have taken to carry all the pieces up there.

After taking a lot of pictures of the almost unreal landscape offered by the crater, black sand, light rocks and snow, and a few more of neighboring 19,925 foot Chachani, we went down to the saddle and ate a light snack. Both of us were feeling good, no altitude problems but to keep it that way we decided to forgo exploring the crater and headed back down. We didn't hire a guide for the climb but were fortunate that Marcio, my guide friend, went with us to the trailhead and pointed out the route up to us. Steve's guide explained the route back down to camp. No need to hike down, just go over to the dark gray sand slope and "ski" down that, lots of fun! We stopped at Steve's camp and left him there with his teammates who were packing up, and then continued on down. We made it down to our camp in about two hours; we would have made it faster except we stopped to take a lot of pictures of our fun descent! After a simple lunch (should have brought another package of soup), which finished all of our food except a little trail mix, we broke camp and headed on down. There was no rush because Lisa wasn't scheduled to meet us until 4:00 pm. We had expected on being at the summit about noon, instead we were back at camp by 11:00 am. After a couple of final photos at the trailhead, we decided to walk down the dirt road, getting almost to the highway before meeting Lisa and Marcio. That gave us plenty of time to talk about our next adventure, after they finish their trip. Of course Chachani is calling our names, there are also two 6,000 meter mountain peaks on the way to Cotahuasi where I live, Coropuna at 21,075 feet and Solimana at 19,985 feet. And then there is my plan for a two week bike ride, all between 9,000 and 16,000 feet.

Looking down on creation...

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There are easy step-by-step guides on how to plant potatoes. There are effective methods to grow potatoes right on your backyard. They're not only fresher and incomparable to the ones you buy in the market, they're also easy to grow and they can be stored even for months without affecting the taste.

Potatoes were initially cultivated by the Inca Indians of Peru during 200 BC. When the Spanish Conquistadors discovered them in the year 1537, these potatoes were brought to Europe and they arrived in North America in the year 1621. Since then, potatoes have been known as one amongst the world's largest food crops. In fact, in the US alone, they grow potatoes steadily, increasing from about 35 billions pounds to 50 billion pounds by year 2007.

If you're wondering where the best place to plant potatoes is, you need to understand that potatoes, just like other crops, need full sunlight in order to grow. Next, potatoes are aggressively rooting plants. This means, they can produce the best crops when planted in a loose, light and well-drained yet moisture retentive loan. They prefer a slightly acid soil having a 5.8 to 6.5 pH.

Potatoes are also very adaptable crops and they can produce respectable crops even once soil conditions become less than perfect. Moreover, potatoes require a three year program. So if you want to grow potatoes every year, you would need three suitable locations.

If you're already eager to plant potatoes, they can be planted around early spring when the ground can already be worked on. However, potato plants don't just grow easily unless the soil temperature reaches 45 degrees F. Aside from this, the soil needs to be evenly moist not to the point where it seems soggy or wet. Remember, if the soil has water logged into it when you dig, this can cake the soil and result to rotting potato seeds before you can even get started.

Similar to peas, potatoes can also tolerate light frost but frost protection may be necessary for these plants when still young. To do this, you can just apply a loose covering made of straw or even a temporary plastic tent will suffice. If you're planning to store potatoes over the winter, the earliest you can plant a second crop is around June 15th.

Another consideration before you plant potatoes is the seeds. Since potatoes are highly susceptible to various serious diseases, certified potato seeds are the best. They're not only disease-free; they can also guarantee the highest quality yields. These are available in most quality nurseries as well as garden centers. Just take note that there are different varieties of potatoes having various qualities and characteristics.

To plant potatoes, you need to wait for a week or two. This is since you still need to set the seeds where they can be exposed to warmth running between 60 to 70 degrees F and full light. This will help them start sprouting.

One day or so prior to planting, utilize a clean, sharp knife in slicing the larger potato seeds into "seeds". The approximate size should be around 1 ½ inches square. They also need around 1 to 2 buds or "eyes".
For the smaller potatoes, they can be planted whole. Then, after a day or two, the seed will feature a thick callousness over the cuts. This helps prevent any rotting once planted.

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There are many wonderful attractions to visit in Sydney. Some of the best Sydney attractions include the Harbour Bridge, the Rocks, Circular Quay, Opera House Sydney, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Australian Museum. These places are fabulous, interesting and rich in history. Most tourists will not want to miss any of these highlights when they tour Sydney.

The Harbour Bridge is Australia's most famous and unique construction. This bridge is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the widest steel arch bridge in the world. The width of its deck is 49m, consisting of eight traffic lanes, two railway lines, a cycleway and footway. This magnificent bridge took about nine years to build and was completed in 1932. It weighs about 60,000 tonnes and from its highest point, is about 134m above the harbour. The Harbour Bridge links the city's northern and southern suburbs. The best time to walk the Bridge is dawn, when the water of the harbour reflects a creamy liquid gold colour as the sun shines on it.

A premier tourist attraction, the Rocks is one of Sydney's most historic areas. In fact, this area depicts its vital role in Sydney's development. With its richness in colonial history, it gives visitors a taste of Sydney's past times. Currently, the place has a variety of pubs, restaurants and gift shops.

Circular Quay is previously known as Sydney Cove. It was at this place when, in January 1788, the new British colony of New South Wales was declared. Huge crowds used to gather in this place to celebrate festivals, memorable occasions, significant events, etc. For example, Circular Quay drew huge crowds when, in 1994, Sydney was awarded the year 2000 Olympic Games.

Most tourists in Sydney would not want to miss visiting the Opera House Sydney. It takes only about 5 minutes to walk from Circular Quay, strolling along the promenade. The Opera House Sydney is Australia's most interesting, significant and unique building. In fact, there is no building on earth that looks like the Opera House Sydney. It is considered as one of the world's busiest performing arts centre, holding an average of about 3,000 performances and events annually. The Opera House Sydney has 5 theatres - a concert hall, an opera theatre, a drama theatre, a cinema and a recording hall. Besides these theatres, it has 5 restaurants, a number of bars, 6 lounges, a library, 5 rehearsal studios and 65 dressing rooms.

Beyond the Circular Quay and Opera House Sydney is the Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. This beautiful and charming place serves as a retreat for most city workers who often come here during lunchtime breaks or for jogging. It provides them a quiet refuge from the city's bustling activities. The Gardens have over 4,000 trees and plants from all over the world. In the herbarium and the pyramid glasshouse, you can find a wide range of tropical and sub-tropical plants. There is a Visitors Centre, Gardens Shop and Gardens Restaurant. If you want to learn more about the plants in these Gardens, you can participate in one of the guided walks which are conducted daily starting at 10.30am from the Centre.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales displays a wide range of art pieces including Aboriginal works, modern Australian art and the works of Australia's best colonial artists. The art gallery holds regular exhibitions. There are some food eateries and a bookshop in this art gallery.

Australia's oldest and largest natural history museum is the Australian Museum. Some experts regard it as one of the world's top natural history museums. Visitors to this museum will have the chance to see Australia's finest flora and fauna. The museum has a great collection of more than 8 million specimens. Besides these displays, it also holds exhibitions on Aboriginal culture and Australian wildlife. There is a shop selling artifacts and history books.

Described above are some of the best Sydney attractions. You can see that there are many kinds of attractions in this place. You can choose to visit historical places, distinctive buildings, art gallery, museum, art centre, gardens, and so on. A tour in Sydney could encompass a combination of different activities and interests. Many tourists have found Sydney a wonderful place to visit. Why not visit Sydney today.

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Buying flower bulbs to plant and grow is an exciting experience that begins in the fall and continues through the spring. Dutch flowering bulbs are usually delivered to American ports by the month of September for fall planting. Major Dutch bulbs offerings include Dutch Amaryllis and African Amaryllis; daffodil bulbs and the famous, Tulip bulbs.

Amaryllis flower bulbs grow the showiest blooms and are pre-cooled to force fast flowering in 3 weeks after containerizing. Dutch bulb importers of Amaryllis offer a larger variety of selections and more bulbs to tempt the buyers. The African growers of Amaryllis bulbs appear to be enslaved to the Dutch Amaryllis importers distribution network, however, the African flowers that emerge on the Amaryllis stems are superior in many respects to the Dutch Amaryllis. The African Amaryllis blooms appear to offer clearer colors, more compact flower stalks, leaves that grow as the flowers appear, and more numerous flower stalks and grow from smaller bulbs. The large array of bloom colors from amaryllis includes red, pink, lavender, orange, yellow, white, green, maroon, red stripe, white stripe, pink stripe, and bi-color. Double numbers of petals on Amaryllis flowers are fast growing to be very popular choices to buy, since the petal count is increased to 12, instead of 6 that grow on most Amaryllis bulb flower stems, looking very similar to a huge carnation flower.

Daffodil flower bulbs are important Dutch bulbs for fall planting, because of their reasonable market cost, the ease of planting, and the growing of flower stalks in the Spring in various colors of yellow, white, orange, and the rare pink daffodil. Daffodil bulbs are easy to naturalize to bloom again every year.

Tulip bulbs are a native flowering plant of Turkey, but long ago tulips were hybridized on a large commercial scale by Dutch bulb growers. The cost of Dutch tulips has not always been inexpensive to buy, but tulip buyers today still love the spring flower colors of red, pink, orange, yellow, blue, purple, white, and bi-color. Cities and government organizations anxiously buy tulip bulbs in huge numbers during winter seasons to grow in beautiful landscape displays for the Spring.

The Canna lily rhizome has been long considered to be tropical in nature, with very little cold hardy resistance. The early American botanist and explorer, William Bartram, wrote in his book, Travels, in 1773, the discovery of Canna indica in Alabama near Mobile, "Canna indica is surprising in luxuriance, presenting a glorious show, the stem rises six, seven, and nine feet high, terminating upwards with spikes of scarlet flowers." Bartram also discovered the native Canna flaccida, growing near Fort Frederica, Georgia, located on the Island of St Simon's. Canna lily colors are broad, red, white, pink, lavender, orange, yellow, speckled, bi-color and others. Some Canna flower growers plant cannas with variegated leaf forms that are striped with red, green, yellow, white, and pink. Dutch distributors of canna rhizomes still flood retail box store, garden centers with "Victorian-age" canna bulbs of poor quality; varieties that had declined, "run out", 50 years ago, and they should have been discontinued and not presented to buyers at a garden center nursery.

Ginger lily rhizomes grow flowers with fragile, delicate blossoms - many looking like miniature orchid flowers. The foliage of Ginger lilies is interestingly variable, growing in colors of green, yellow, maroon, and stripes of yellow or white. Interest in planting ginger lilies has surged in 20 years, because of the realization that many ginger lilies are cold hardy, surviving temperatures as cold as zero degrees F. The foliage and the flowers are pleasantly aromatic.

Daylilies are actually not bulbs but rhizomes, but are sold extensively as daylily bulbs. Thousands of named varieties of Daylily bulbs have been easily hybridized by legions of backyard gardeners and the selection improvement and flower quality is absolutely astonishing. The improvement has resulted in growing double flower daylily, miniature daylily, cold hardy daylilies, and compact clumping or large clumping daylily plants. It is staggering to realize all these many colors - red, white, yellow, orange, purple, pink, and bi-color originated from an original native plant -a seedy, yellow daylily growing wild on the forest edge.

Crinum Lily bulbs offer to an adventurous hobbiest or gardener an antique garden bulb selection that has been reintroduced as improved crinum clones by the brilliant inductiveness of chemist, Lester Hannibal of Fair Oaks, California. Lester Hannibal back crossed and intercrossed many native crinum lily species to offer the gardener an excellent, cold hardy crinum, an "interspecific hybrid", that can be grown as far North as Philadelphia, PA, zone 6, and to survive intense freezes of below zero temperatures. Many of Lester Hannibal's crinum flower hybrids were a re-creation of obsolete but popular commercial crosses that were made by Cecil Houdyshel in the 1930's, but largely improved upon from the original "Powellii" forms with clear, white and pink colors, an increase in the number of flowers in the umbel, extended flowering periods, an eliminatio of drooping flowers, an intensification of fragrance and early flowering after sprouting from the germination of the seed. The "milk and wine" crinum lilies were named, because the flowers were white (milk) and wine striped colors. Crinum colors are burgundy, red, pink, white, greenish-yellow, and orange. Crinum bulbs increase by growing into clumps of multiple offsets from the central mother bulb, or by planting the seed of some cultivars or species.

-Rare, Hard-To-Find Flower Bulbs of Merit- Many rare minor flower bulbs are unavailable to buy anywhere, except by possibly exchanging plants with collectors and hobbiest. The Amazon lily, Encharist grandiflora, blooms with six white, daffodil like petals, and a green or glowing yellow cup radiating from the center. This delicate flower can be remembered from days past for its wonderful charming fragrance. The Bird of Paradise is known for the two tropical forms, the Strelizia reginae, the most common: brilliantly colored flowers with orange, red, and blue glaring blossoms; and the Strelizia nicholae that grows large, showy, white flowers. The Blood Lily, Scadoxus mutliflorus, forms baby-head sized globular flowers with red filamented petals and radiate fragile threads of red that are affixed to the to the center of the bloom, great for container culture. The Red Butterfly lily, Odontonema strictum, won the perennial plant award of the year in Florida in the year 2000, and butterflies and hummingbirds flock to visit the fiery red spikes, beginning in mid-August and continuing until the first hard freeze. The Calla lily, Calla palustrus, has been hybridized with many other Calla lily species to grow into many splendid colors, but the new hybrids are not as popular as the white, fragrant, winter-blooming, Calla aethiopica; and the yellow calla, Calla aethiopica. Clivia lilies, Clivia minata, are choice heavy shade-requiring plants that produce gigantic clusters of orange flowers, cup shaped, with a yellow throat, and often will re-bloom two or three times from large bulbs.

The Gloriosa lilies, Gloriosa rothschildiana, a climbing vine that clothes itself with recurved, star-like flowers that are favored and admired by florists and flower arrangers, because the blooms last so well. The Inca Lily, Alstomeria aurantiaca, has become naturalized in America, as an escaped bulb from the tropical jungles of Peru. The Alstromeria flowers last well as a cut-flower, and waxy, greenish-red funnels begin blooming vigorously in the spring. Lycoris are a charming group of flower bulbs that called "Spider Lily", and they bloom in floral colors of pink, yellow, white, and red, Lycoris radiata, which is the most widely grown. The Pineapple Lily, Eucomis bicolor, grows into flowers that are shaped like miniature pineapple fruits in colors of white and rusty-red. Scilla flower bulbs are grown in large numbers as bedding plants, many Dutch varieties are small and make good cut flowers, but the best cold hardy Scilla is the Scilla peruviana that forms and grows into glowing, purplish-blue flowers that either grow as well as bedding plants, or containerized plants. Voodoo lilies, Amorphophallus bulbifer, are strange and bazaar leafy bulbous plants, both in leaf and flower, with a suggestive look of snakes, cobras, and other vermin that may be lurking beneath the leopard-spotted menacing leaves. Zephyranthes are called "rain lilies", and softly bloom in colors of pink, Zephyranthes grandiflora; yellow, Zephyranthes citrina; white, Zephyranthes atamasco; and a mind-numbing number of Zephyranthes bulb mongrels that are distributed by a retired breeder in San Antonio, Texas, who apparently has nothing better to do, than paralyze all the worlds earnest taxonomists into the task of assembling the records of his Mexican-American bulb-children lineage into a staggering Encyclopedia publication.

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