How to Grow Achimenes

The Achimenes plant is a member of the Gesneriad family and closely related to gloxinias and African violets. Common names for it are monkey-faced pansy, hot water plant (its tubercles refuse to sprout in the spring unless they are warm) and nut-orchid.

The first achimenes plant brought to England’s gardeners came from Jamaica in 1778. It was the scarlet flowered species called Achimenes coccinea. Sixty years later three additional species arrived from Guatemala and their popularity became fabulous all over western Europe. They are considered a tropical plant and are naturalized in Mexico and Central America.

I saw a pot of achimenes (a-kim’e-neezil) about fifteen years ago and after realizing the wide diversity in flower form, color and habit of growth, I gradually collected 20 or 30 varieties.

Different varieties may be upright or drooping, and will accommodate the grower when planted in pots, baskets or window boxes. One reader from Kansas City who grows many exotic plants, last year had a few extra tubercles of purple variety achimenes. She tossed these into her rose bed, which is in full sunlight until mid- afternoon, and they thrived there for her, proving that they also have value as outdoor bedding plants.

The Foliage

The bronze foliage is somewhat velvety with burgundy color on the underside of the leaf. Some varieties have green foliage. Mature plants are about a foot tall and as wide, if several of the scaly rhizomes are planted in a large pot. Taller plants have a more pleasing appearance when well staked.

The Flowers

Flowers come in the leaf axils, and large, well-grown plants are literally covered with the gleaming flowers which have been compared to single-flowered petunias. Achimenes flower colors are shades of red, purple, blue, pink, white, or variegations of these. The tubercles of most achimenes resemble small pine cones. Others are round or pear shaped and are colored rose, pink or white depending on the variety.

Tubercles may also form in the leaf axils of some varieties in late fall. These will make new plants the same as the underground tubercles. To store them until planting time, simply cover them lightly with soil in the pot where they grew.

Growing

Achimenes tubercles may be ordered during January and February, and occasionally they are available even until the first of May. Most growers mail out their tubercles by mid-March.

They should be planted immediately upon receiving them. Use a very light soil mixture. My achimenes are planted in 4 to 8 inch pots depending on the number of tubercles I have of each variety. I prefer about 15 tubercles in an eight-inch pot, and four or six in the smaller pots. The larger pots hold the moisture better and produce a mass of bloom. Smaller pots dry out too quickly if they are set outside.

Barely cover the tubercles with soil when planting. Each pot is also labeled.

In warm weather I set my plants under a catalpa tree where they are sheltered by shrubbery. They are kept moist with the garden hose and sprayed several times on a hot day in their shaded retreat.

To give achimenes an early start, keep room temperatures at 70 degrees or higher at all times and they should come a poppin’.

Soluble house plant fertilizer should be fed during the blooming time which is usually June through October (longer for some varieties, which are inclined to start into active growth a little later in the spring). They demand a good amount of humidity in the air, and the soil in their pots should never be dry, but kept rather moist at all times. If the moisture is too low in the air or around the roots, the foliage is likely to brown and the blooms may drop.

Before frost arrives some pots are brought in on my glassed-in and heated porch for the final blooming and others go directly to the basement because of lack of other space. After the foliage and stems are dry they are removed and the tubercles remain in their pots until they begin to sprout the following early spring. They are then repotted in clean pots and fresh soil. It is well to keep the soil in the pots just a very tiny bit moist during the dormancy of the tubercles so they will not completely shrivel and die.

Achimenes seem to thrive on heat and this trait makes them a life-saver for those with a home greenhouse during the summer months. I know of one home Oklahoma grower who grows 15 or 20 varieties of them in his small greenhouse and they give it color and life which it otherwise would not likely have during that season.

No matter where you grow achimenes, give them a loose soil with moisture in the soil and in the air surrounding them, and good light without hot sunshine and you should be successful.

Make achimenes one of those “new” plants on your list this year. Order three or six each of at least a half dozen varieties… the tubercles are not expensive, and they give an amazing amount of blossom for so small an amount of time and attention given them.

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