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Astelia nivicola 'Red Devil' (Red Mountain Astelia) - A red-foliaged clustering evergreen perennial that has rosettes of 1-2 feet tall with 2 inch wide gradually tapering and arching leaves that are a silver-gray and are flushed with red bronze colors and turn purple-red in winter, darker red with less silver overtones than Astelia nervosa 'Westland', and with a felty underside.
Plant in part sun to light shade in a well-drained soil. Although this plant can take periods without water and is marketed as a drought tolerant plant in New Zealand, it looks better if given occasional to regular irrigation in our dry summers in California. Hardy to about 20-25 degrees F. This plant is listed as tolerating coastal conditions in New Zealand.
Astelia nivicola is very similar to Astelia nervosa but has a brown felted underside of the leaf and comes from wet mountain meadows above 4,000 feet in the central to southern areas of the South Island of New Zealand. As with other Astelia the male and female flowers are on separate plants (Dioecious), neither are showy and are usually down in the foliage - we have yet to see this plant flower and can find no information on whether this selection is a male or female. There are 25 species of Astelia with 13 endemic to New Zealand. This plant was reportedly selected by Kaikoura Nurseries in New Zealand and was introduced in the US in 2010 by Ball Ornamentals. The genus name comes from combining the Greek words 'a' meaning "without" and 'stele' meaning a "trunk" or "pillar" in reference to these plants not forming a stem or trunk. The specific epithet comes from the Latin words 'nivi' or 'nivos' meaning "snow" and 'cola' meaning "inhabitant' or "dweller" in reference to this plant's natural habitat. Astelia has long been considered part of the Liliaceae family but most recent treatment puts them in the Asteliaceae family in the Asparagales order with the relatively unknown genera Collospermum, Milligania and Neoastelia. We discontinued production on this plant in 2015.
This information about Astelia nivicola 'Red Devil' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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