Description
This is a climber with large, golden-yellow flowers borne on stems of about 1.5m. The flowers are a good deep yellow and sometimes bear fine markings in shades of mahogany-red on the petals, almost like Alstroemeria.
It is related to T. polyphyllum but the leaves are very different and the flowers have less overlapping petals and a narrow, straighter spur.
In the wild in Chile this grows at high altitudes 1200-2200m. The environment is dry, with low rainfall falling mostly over winter. It gets occasional snow cover. Said to be hardy to -8°C, it has certainly taken -2°C here without ill effects.
Older plants travel deep into the soil with age. In a 40cm long tom pot, it will be out of the bottom within a season. In the open ground it will go to 50cm deep in a year. Outside in the garden, its initial planting site will be its final planting site! In the garden growth appears in February (December in pots) but this great depth means that even if the top growth is lost, it will come again. From late Spring onwards it will be clothed with fabulous yellow flowers, before vanishing for the summer as temperatures rise.
